Graduation HIVE fanfic
by JediShadow
Summary: It's the Fantastic Four's last year at H.I.V.E., and they want to make sure they've well and truly left their mark on the school. With dances, exams and pranks, H.I.V.E. had better prepare for a whole new kind of drama. T for mild language.
1. Chapter 1

"You realize that after this year we're free?" Shelby said. She was in her room with Laura, Wing and Otto, finishing their Villainous Studies essays. "Oh God, the Wraith will make the most epic comeback of all time."

"Of course, six years of training will without a doubt bring the Wraith up a few ranks in the world of villainy," Wing agreed - as usual, nobody could tell if he was being sarcastic.

"Not all of us are going to graduate with a degree in Ninja," Laura reminded the two. "I'm going to become the world's most infamous hacker."

"Laura Brand, who no firewall can resist," Otto said grandly.

"And apparently no albino either," Shelby quipped. "I wonder if H.I.V.E does anything for sixth-years. Ooooh, maybe we'll have a prom."

"I think that's only an American thing," Laura commented. "Or a schools-where-the-students-have-a-place-to-buy-prom-dresses thing, anyway."

"This is H.I.V.E., honey. If they want dresses, then dresses they will have. Hey, that could be an assignment - steal yourself an outfit, and you're invited to the dance," Shelby said excitedly. "That would be good."

"Hey, if you can get it to happen, I won't complain," Laura said. "As long as you steal me my dress."

"Can I steal your shoes, too? I feel like you wouldn't know how to match the two."

"Sure, whatever."

"I think I can steal my own suit, before you ask," Otto chipped in.

"So can I," Wing said. "Although if you want to help me choose one, I trust your judgement."

"Okay, now I'm getting excited. This needs to happen. Damn, I wish this school had a student council. So, how does everyone suggest we go about this?"

"You know, I don't really care about having a prom, but if it involves a field trip, then what the hell, it'll be fun enough. Shelby, I reckon you need to be the one to ask."

"Sure thing." She turned on her blackBox. "Hey, HIVEmind. Connect me to Nero."

If had had eyebrows, Shelby felt sure he would have raised them. "Any reason? I thought you'do finished your homework. Is it about exams?"

"Close enough." She sat back and winked at the others. "See? Piece of cake."

Nero's face came up on the screen. He looked somewhat surprised at the call.

"Hello, Miss Trinity. Since you don't appear to be in danger at the moment, might I ask why you are calling?"

"Hi, Doctor Nero. I was wondering if there was any way the sixth-years could have an end-of-year dance."  
He blinked. "Miss Trinity, I really don't think this is the kind of school that can host dances."  
"Why not?" Shelby persisted. There was _no_ way she would take no for an answer today.  
"Well, for starters, would you want everyone to turn up in uniform to a dance?"  
She'd been expecting that question. "We steal our outfits. Only people who complete the mission successfully get to go."  
"Where would we host it?"  
"Just take your biggest hall and put up disco lights."  
Nero suddenly realised that there wasn't much argument against the idea. It wasn't really something he thought made a lot of sense, but he was out of real reasons not to go along with it and they both knew it.  
"Well, I shall speak to the rest of the teachers and get their opinions on the matter. But if you want a whole night spent partying, then I will expect perfect grades in all your subjects, Miss Trinity. That goes for your friends, too."  
"When do we ever _not_ have perfect grades?" Otto objected, annoyed.  
Shelby ignored him. "I think that can be achieved. In fact, we were just finishing our homework now."  
"In that case, go and finish. will notify you when I have more news." He disappeared from the screen.  
"There's no argument against it, and he knows it," Shelby squealed. "We're gonna get a prom!"  
"There doesn't have to be an argument, if Nero doesn't like it," Laura pointed out. "He overrides all the pros and cons."  
"That's too close to Nerdspeak for my liking," Shelby said. "Quick, get your essays done. You heard Nero - perfect grades."  
"But our grades are always perfect," Wing and Otto said together.  
"Well then, you won't have much trouble with _this_ one, will you? Laura, since you're finished already, be a dear and look over mine."  
"It better be an expensive prom dress," Laura grumbled, taking the paper Shelby was holding out.  
"Be as specific as you like. Although I think blue would look great with your eyes."

Nero turned around to see Raven walking in.  
"Miss Trinity just called me to ask if we could host a dance at the end of the year for the sixth-years," he said. "What do you think?"  
"They want to dance in their uniform?" Raven queried, raising an eyebrow.  
"She says that everyone has to go out and steal their outfit, if they don't, they can't come."  
"I suppose we are somewhat taking away the typical high school experience for our students. If we have enough teachers to take the whole year out to steal outfits, I don't see why not. Just don't put me down for decorating."  
Nero smiled. "Or for anything to do with it, I presume."  
"Well...no," she agreed.  
"I'll ask the others what they think, but I'm afraid we may have to go through with it."  
"Hmm. Is that all?"  
"Well, there's something extremely important that has come up. It concerns the sixth-year Alphas."

"Shelby, you have a message on your blackBox," Laura called. Shelby was in the shower, but when she heard Laura, threw on a bath robe and ran over to her blackBox.  
"Hi, Big Blue. What is the message? Are we having a prom?"  
"The message is from Doctor Nero," told her (Shelby held her breath). "He wants you to know that none of the staff find fault in your suggestion and that as long as you keep your grades up and help arrange most of it, he's happy to go through with it."  
Shelby cheered. "Thanks, HIVEmind. Has my homework been marked yet?"  
"You received one hundred percent on your Villainous Studies assignment."  
"Yay! Okay, I need to finish washing my hair." She dashed back to the shower with a spring in her step.  
Laura tried to keep the smile off her face - she'd never admit it to Shelby, but she was really looking forward to the dance. She _wanted_ to wear a nice dress and do up her hair and slow dance with her boyfriend. She finished braiding her hair and turned on her blackBox.  
" HIVEmind," she said, quietly so as to not be overheard. "Search online for prom dresses."

"We're having a prom!" Shelby announced, almost dancing into the hall.  
"You took a long time, so I saved you some breakfast because I saw Franz," Wing said, holding out a bacon roll.  
"Aw, thanks honey. Anyway, I need to find a dress to steal. Brand, if you can hack the security cam I'll get yours on the way."  
"Piece of cake," Laura said confidently. "Hang on. You say that like you've picked out my dress already."  
"Yeah, I hacked your blackBox and found a store supplying the one you wanted - nice choice, by the way. I see you followed my advice about the blue."  
Laura flushed red. "You hacked my blackBox?"  
"I needed practice! Anyway, don't look so embarrassed - you have great taste in fashion. Can I still pick the shoes?"  
She snorted. "I trust you."  
They group finished their breakfast, Laura and Shelby planning their theft, Wing and Otto planning theirs.  
"Okay, we have Tactical Education next," Shelby said happily. "And then Stealth and Evasion. Hurry up, all of you!"  
Francisco seemed to be in an equally good mood - Otto had guessed correctly that he was really looking forward to drilling everyone for their end-of-year exams.  
"Five years ago, the majority of you were talentless brats," he began cheerfully. "Most of you perform at an acceptable level now, but you will need to be much better than acceptable if you want to pass your final exams. Today we won't be using equipment, but will instead be praticing parkour at an extremely advanced level. No, Miss Trinity, I'll demonstrate." (Shelby's hand was stretched as high as it could go, as per usual - parkour was her absolute favourite.) "By the end of the class, you should all be able to cross this obstacle course in under two minutes." He ran towards the first obstacle - a wall nearly as tall as he was - at an alarming speed, then vaulted over it with a single hand and landed on top with both feet. Without missing a beat, he grabbed the rope in front of him and hauled himself up with no apparent effort. The rope was tied to a horizontal metal bar, which he lached (swung) from on to the next platform, then vaulted over to the next wall (which was about give metres high), which he dropped down from and rolled to another wall, which he ran up, and did a no-hands cartwheel to the finishing line.

"Those of you who are less - ah - _aerodynamic_ \- will certainly struggle with this challenge," the Colonel said, grinning evilly ("Three guesses who that was aimed at," Shelby muttered), "as will those who are lacking the upper body strength parkour requires. Pair up, and let's see how you do."

"Oh, it's on, big guy," Shelby said with a grin. Her relationship with Wing was largely built on this sort of competition before they started dating, and even afterwards they were always trying to outdo each other in this area.

Shelby went first, and gracefully vaulted over the first wall, shimmied up the rope, swung onto the wall, dropped down, and ran up the next wall in one minute and forty-five-point-zero-three-one seconds. Wing had been point-zero-zero-two seconds slower, and was fully aware that to Shelby, it might as well have been 0.002 of a century slower.

"Better shape up, big guy, you never know when two-thousandths of a second could come in handy," she said, grinning from ear to ear at her victory.

"It would make me happy if you'd stop talking for two-thousandths of a second," Wing replied plaintively. "Also, look at Franz."  
Franz had managed to get up to the rope, but through some incident, had ended up knotting the rope around his feet while trying to 'make something to step on'.

"I am thinking this would be a good time for the ladder, Ja?" He asked unhappily as Shelby approached with her shoulders shaking ever so slightly as she tried to stop herself from laughing.

"Locks, knots - fear not, for the Wraith can get through them all," Shelby announced as she untied the knots quickly and easily. "Now grab the rope and haul yourself up."

"I think that will be all for today," Francisco said, still reasonably cheerful - Franz's dilemma had more than made up for how easily Shelby an Wing had covered the course. "Most if you were pretty hopeless, so every Friday at seven come here for a crash course in parkour. Argentblum, I would suggest that you attend. The rest of you, HIVEmindwill send in your homework."

"So boys," Shelby said, absent-mindedly doing her homework, "What's your plan to get your tuxes? Me and Laura have ours figured out, and unless you want me picking the outfits, you'll have to steal them yourselves."  
"Don't worry about us," Otto told her. "We've got it all figured out. We're doing it Wednesday night."  
"Friday for us," Shelby replied. "Wednesdays are senior boys' water polo practice. We aren't missing that."  
"Forgive us if we would rather steal clothes than join you," Wing said. "Do you think question 23 is grapplers?"  
"Umm, '23. Hijacking a plane from the outside.'. Definitely. What are you doing for question 25?"  
"'25. Describe how you would break into a bank using the information below and a budget of £10,000.' Well, I'd just buy a simple tracking device so I could take out and impersonate the manager, then use the remaining 9,990 on, perhaps, a trip to France."  
"That would work, or you could just hack the system and take all the money from there."  
"I'm impressed," Laura said. "I thought for sure you'd use an ISIS suit, or the ventilation shaft."  
"Well, France does sound nice..."


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, we have...thirty minutes to get the tuxes and leave."  
"Why?"  
"To show off, obviously."  
Otto and Wing had been dropped off near a huge occasions store selling the most expensive suits. It wasn't really that either of them was so interested in high-end fashion - but the bragging rights for stealing a £9000 suit are much better than for a £50 suit.  
"So remember, I've disabled the security cameras. You've got to turn off the burglar alarms. Then I'll come, we'll pick something out, and we're back in time for bed. First thing, climb up to that window -" Otto pointed "-open it, get in. That way you're right where they keep all the important stuff."  
"Would it not be easier to pick the lock on the door?"  
"That's what I'm doing."  
Wing took out the grappler he had stolen and fired it towards the window. He slowly reeled it in, trying to avoid hitting the wall, and then once he was close enough, took out the hair grip he'd borrowed from Shelby and drove it across the edge of the glass. The window came apart and he climbed into a large room full of filing cabinets. Flicking the switch on, he spotted the control panel and turned off all the burglar alarms. Then he went down to the storage room where he found Otto, already looking through piles of suits.  
"Well done, my friend," Wing congratulated him. "You might want to pick a blue tie or something to go with Laura's dress."  
"It's blue?" Otto said blankly.  
"According to Shelby," Wing told him. "You know, she won't admit it, but I think Laura is looking froward to going to the dance with you."  
"Really?" Otto asked. "I didn't think she was really into dances."  
"That's what she would have you think. But are you?"  
Otto frowned. "I mean, I guess I'd want to go...with Laura...but only with her. With all the world-saving that we have to do every other day, we don't have much time to, y'know, be a couple."  
"I understand the struggle," Wing agreed. "But it would take a lot of bad luck for everything to go wrong on the night of the dance, surely if something is to happen it will be sooner in the year. I will take this one." He held out his choice if tuxedo.  
"This one will do," Otto said, looking somewhat pleased at what Wing had told him. "What about Shelby?"  
"She doesn't make much effort to conceal her excitement about things," Wing replied, smiling slightly as he remembered the dancing lessons she'd insisted on giving him earlier that night.  
"No, I mean...how do you guys stay so close? With all we get up to here?"  
"Shelby is very good at staying light-hearted even when the world could be at its end. She can always find time for those she cares about. But thankfully, we haven't had to test that so far this year."  
"Don't jinx it," Otto grinned, "Term barely started a week ago. There is still _plenty_ of time for something to go wrong. But let's go now, the faster we finish the better the bragging rights."  
Wing and Otto ran back up to the filing cabinets room, grabbing shoes on the way. Wing switched all the burglar alarms back on while Otto cut off the security tags on the tuxes, then put them in his bag. Then Otto climbed onto the window frame and fired his grappler down and descended from the window. Wing climbed out, put the window back into its slot and followed suit.  
"Twenty-seven minutes," Otto announced, looking at his watch. "Not bad, not bad. Come on, let's get back to the Shroud."  
They sprinted back to where Raven had dropped them off, but when they entered the Shroud, she was missing.  
"Probably wanting to make an entrance as usual," Otto said. "Not in a bad way, since she can probably hear me."  
"Always good to take precautions," Raven agreed, appearing out of the shadows in her usual way. "Pretty good job on the heist, now strap in."  
"You watched?" Otto asked, putting his seatbelt on.  
"Never miss a chance to see how you're doing." Raven smiled as she started the Shroud.

"We're back," Otto exclaimed as they burst into the common room.  
"So are we," Shelby announced, striding over with Laura following. "Come on then, let us see."  
Otto took their haul out of his bag and showed them.  
"Well done, big guy," Shelby said, rewarding him with a quick kiss. "Acceptable, Otto. Don't know how you managed to find something that matched Laura's dress."  
"I dunno, I guess I got lucky, or maybe I'm just really good at fashion," Otto said.  
"I helped you," Wing reminded him.  
"I knew it!" Shelby yelled. "Otto, you big liar. Give Wing the credit he deserves."  
"I was getting there!" he protested. "I'm going to go and finish that program I started writing. Laura, do you want to help?"  
Laura looked pleased - the program in question was designed so that you could knock down firewalls at the touch of a button, something incredibly complex which up till now, Otto had," been writing alone.  
"Really?"  
"Yeah, I don't know why I didn't ask for your help sooner. Come on, let's give the ninjas some privacy."  
"It looks like we aren't the ones needing privacy!" Shelby called as they went into the room and closed the door.  
She turned to Wing. "You did that too, didn't you?" she asked fondly.  
"I gave him some pointers on how to make time for he and Laura to be a couple more often," Wing told her. "And I think it worked."  
"Awww, that's adorable," Shelby said, puuting her arm around him. "Anyway, since Nerds One and Two are back at their laptops, do you want to practice some combat? Or parkour, or anything really. I'm not picky."  
"That does sound enjoyable," Wing agreed. "Let me put the suits away, and we'll go."

"So, what first?" Shelby asked, tying her hair back. "I'd start with the least painful stuff first, but maybe that's just me."  
"It is just you," Wing told her. "Boxing gloves on."  
In a flash, Shelby had them on and wasting no time, swung her arm over Wing's head. He dodged the blow and threw a punch near her shoulder. She twisted out of the way and got ready to punch again, but then a fire alarm sounded.

"Shoot, I was just getting started," Shelby moaned. "What's he done this time? Is it possible to over-code a computer so much that it bursts into flames?

The two ran two the fire "exit" - a large fireproof dome that you were expected to stay in until further notice. Raven and Nero were already there, waiting with slightly bemused expressions.

"Okay, judging by their faces, it looks like I was right." Shelby panted, slowing down.  
"Doctor Nero, what has caused the fire alarm to sound?" Wing asked, looking concerned.

"Well, it appears that Nigel has...made a nanodragon." Nero replied.  
Shelby burst out laughing. "Even better. Is it another Violet?"  
"Thankfully, all that's been set on fire is a table so far. Our main concern is catching the dragon before it gets to be anything more. Shouldn't be any trouble. "  
"If you say so. Can we help?"  
"Don't worry, Mr Malpense is already on the job," he told her, looking amused at her indignant expression. "I'm sure he's handling it fine. You can go back to your dorm as soon as he sends me the signal."

"Again, Nigel?" Otto yelled, trying desperately to shoot the dragon. "You seriously thought, you know, I reckon I should set the school on fire one more time before I leave?"  
"Sorry," Nigel said in a small voice. "I just -"  
"No, it's brilliant!" Otto finally hit the dragon and it fell to the ground. Nigel let out a small noise. "I couldn't have thought of a better senior-year prank."  
"It wasn't on purpose..."Nigel protested weakly as Otto pressed a button to send the signal to Nero that the threat was gone. "Come on," he called over his shoulder as he started walking, "Isn't it past your bedtime?"  
Nigel followed back to the common room reluctantly. When they got back a whole group of people were waiting for him - some to condemn Nigel for setting the school of fire, some to commend.  
"You are setting the school on fire?" Franz said, clapping him on the back (Nigel doubled over). "That is not being very good, my friend. I love it."  
"There's the hero of the hour," Shelby called out as soon as she spotted him. "How did Violet number two come into being?"  
"You couldn't have chosen a safer thing to try and create?" Laura complained, clearly disgruntled about having been taken away from her computer. "A robot, perhaps? Or a bird?"  
"Leave him alone, Brand," Shelby reprimanded her. "You can go back to your ultra-codeathon or whatever now. Besides, that's given me an idea - we should come up with a prank for the end of the year. Maybe not as...warm, though."  
"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Otto said thoughtfully. "We could try to find Nigel a girlfriend while we're at it. And get Franz really into exercise."  
"I'm not one to shy away from a challenge," Laura said. "Except how the hell will we possibly get _Franz_ into exercise? Ever?"  
"We have a year to figure it out, we'll manage," Shelby said. "Maybe."  
"I think if we are discussing impossible ways to have fun this year, we should try and create an AI for HIVEmind," Wing chipped in.  
"Oooh, yes, HIVEmind needs a girlfriend," Laura grinned. "Otto, once we're done with the program, we should get started on that."  
"Can we also try to get Nero and Raven to date? Or any teachers to date?" Otto laughed.  
"Oh my God, that needs to happen," Shelby said excitedly. "And we should host a party in secret, see how long before we're caught."  
"No, you know what we should try? Giving HIVEmind an Indian accent," Laura suggested. Shelby giggled at that idea.  
"Or we should...I know! Make a hologram Raven and see if Nero falls for it.  
"What I want to do is make a screen projector. I haven't had a movie night since came here."  
"Good idea, I heard a new Star Wars movie came out last year and I can't get far enough into the outside internet to watch it," Laura said enthusiastically. "Now I'm on board."  
"Of course," Shelby grinned, "Throw Star Wars into the mix and Laura'll do anything. Except cut off her hands, because she needs them to code."  
"If that ever happens, Laura, I'll make you new hands that can type even faster," Otto promised.  
"Awwwww, nothing cuter than nerdy claims of undying love," Shelby said. "No, actually, Wing when he's confused. That's way cuter."  
"I thought I was cutest when I was angry," Wing frowned.  
"See what I mean?"

"Okay, Brand. I know the shopping list back to front. Just make sure the cameras don't pick up anything, and I'll be out in ten minutes tops."  
Shelby put on her favorite pair of climbing cloves and scaled the nearly flat wall of the store and was at the room which monitored the security cameras within ninety seconds. Quickly, she opened the window and pull a rope out of her bag, tied one end to the wall and threw the other down to Laura, who started to climb and once she reached the top, clambered in.  
"Nice work," she said, sitting down at the computer and getting started. "Hmm, for such a high-end store, the security is pretty low."  
"I don't think you have the same idea of 'low security' as the store, somehow," Shelby commented.  
"Give me a minute."  
It took exactly a minute for Laura to get the security cameras to keep playing the last few hours of footage.  
"Okay, it's all up to you now," Laura said, leaning back in her chair with satisfaction. "I'll wait here to make sure the hack worked and the cameras don't pick anything up."  
"Also, count how long I take. GO!"

Shelby dashed down the rope and ran to the entrance without stopping. She picked the lock in less than a minute, and was in the store seconds later, hopping around looking for their outfits.  
"Alright, it's the blue one with the gemstones that you wanted, right?" Shelby checked, speaking quietly into her walkie-talkie. "Over."  
"That's the one. And the 'over' is really not necessary"  
"Cool, found it. I'm still picking the shoes, though. Oh, these are perfect!"  
Shelby picked up both dresses, shoes, corsages (she had insisted), and even makeup and was outside with the door shut in eight minutes and thirty-two seconds.

"Okay, so put the cameras back to normal and get down here. Don't forget the rope."  
It took Laura a while after she'd thrown the rope down to climb down the wall, but she made it down reasonably fast and they were soon walking back to the Shroud.  
"Hey listen," Laura started. "First, please, please don't tell Otto that I'm saying this. Or anybody."  
Her tone made it clear that Shelby was not to take this jokingly. "I promise."

"I'm actually really excited for the dance."  
Shelby raised her eyebrows.  
"Don't," she said warningly. "I act like I don't care because I know he doesn't, but...I just really want one night with that's not about school, or saving the world, and-"

Shelby hugged her. "Hon, why do you think I'm excited for this dance? The dresses?"  
"Well..."  
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Don't get me wrong, HIVE is great, but do you think I enjoy nearly losing my friends and my boyfriend ten different ways every few weeks? The one thing that I always wanted from a high school that HIVE didn't have was a chance to have fun and be a normal teenager at a normal dance. But you know what? I think Otto feels the same."  
Laura looked at her. "You do?"  
"Actually, I know it," she said. "He and Wing had a pretty similar conversation the other night. Why do you think he's suddenly being all sweet and romantic?"

Laura laughed. "Thanks, Shel. "


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't get why I have to do this," Shelby grumbled. "I finish the assignments with perfect marks. Why should I put more effort into it than is actually necessary?"  
"Because one day, you're going to break your leg, or lose an arm, and you won't be able to sneak around picking locks and doing big action sequences anymore," Laura said, wagging her finger, "and when that day comes, you'll have to resort to the digital equivalent - hacking."  
"I suppose, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so bad. But I can already hack enough to pass the tests. Why can't I learn when I _actually_ lose a limb?"  
"You're getting older, Shel, and if you don't master it soon you'll have missed the mark and you won't be able to learn like you used to. Now hidden somewhere on this page is a password. You need to find it and use it to get into the page. Go."  
Thinking, Shelby opened the source code and scanned it.  
"Well, there's nothing here, but there's a link to another page, which, um..."  
"You've been here five years now, and you're on your sixth. If you want the perfect marks for the dance, you'll need to think faster."  
"Okay, okay! Uuuuuummmm...ooh! That looks like unescape code!"  
Laura sighed in relief. "Good. Now translate the code."  
Shelby obeyed. "097 115 055 054 103 106. ASCII code. I think."  
"Yes, that's right. Now decode the ASCII."  
Shelby typed the numbers into an ASCII decoder.  
" **as76gj**. Is that right?"  
"You tell me."  
She pasted the decoded message into the password box and clicked check. The screen loaded for several long seconds before coming up with **Password Correct**.  
Shelby punched the air. "I did it!"  
Laura couldn't help but smile. "Well, that was a pretty simple hack. Go onto the next one, it's a bit harder."  
"Did you make all these sim-hacks?"  
"I made the whole program from scratch."  
"Not too bad. Now, let's see...function, if password equals sgi32fo... wait, no no no no no. That's fake code."  
Laura hugged her. "My Shelby's learning to hack! Aw, I'm so proud!" she said teasingly.  
"Shut it, Brand. Can't you see I'm busy?" Shelby gasped. "Oh no. Five minutes in and I'm becoming you..."  
"I don't think you're me just yet. Did you really not see that obfuscated code?"  
"Shoot. Okay, here goes...seriously? The best you could think of was **thisisthepassword**?"  
"Don't question it. Anyway, once we've finished today's lesson, do you think you could help me a bit with my parkour? No way I'm going to Francisco's classes."  
"Yay!" Shelby exclaimed happily. Then she frowned. "How the hell does this one work?"  
"Seriously? Don't you remember how to intercept cookies?"

* * *

"Thank God we're doing _my_ thing now," Shelby said, pulling her golden-blonde hair into a high ponytail. "I don't like being out of my element."

"You're out of your element for at least three classes a day," Laura reminded her.  
"Yes, and do you ever see me enjoying it? Now, the first thing is, you need to be able to roll properly. Not the gymnastics kind of roll. Roll over your shoulder instead of your back, because if you roll over your spine on concrete, you're gonna break it. Watch."  
She did a forwards roll, but instead of going head-first, she went shoulder-first over her right shoulder.  
"If you can do that, you can drop from ten feet and not get hurt. Start with that."  
Laura rolled.  
"Silly Laura, you're just rolling head-first diagonally. Watch now, shoulder first. Put your hands like this."  
Laura rolled again.  
"There you go. We'll go back to that in a bit. Now, you need to know how to do different vaults. First there's the step vault, just put run up, put this foot and this hand on the obstacle, and step over." Shelby demonstrated, and Laura tried.  
"See? That's an easy one. If you try the same thing with _no_ feet, that's a little harder.  
Shelby backed up, then ran towards the wall, put one hand on it, and then leapt over effortlessly, feet never once touching the wall.  
"The only thing you use to get yourself across is one hand. Okay, go."  
Laura ran towards the wall, put down her hand, and jumped the best she could. Her feet came over almost perfectly. She spun around and went again, lifting her legs up higher. This time, she vaulted over using only her hand.  
"Good!" Shelby clapped. "You know, when you aren't trying to outdo Otto, you're actually pretty good. Now let's try to climb the rope, I remember that took you a while on Monday."

* * *

Raven and Nero watched through the cameras as Shelby urged Laura up the rope. They were both grinning, and even though Laura looked drained from the challenge, it was easy to see how much they were both enjoying themselves.  
"You haven't told them?" Raven asked quietly.  
Nero shook his head. "They're so excited to finally have a peaceful year. I won't tell them unless they're absolutely needed."  
"But Max, if we tell them now, they could help us fix it sooner," Raven argued. "We don't want their dance ruined because we didn't let them try to help. I'm sure they'd much rather have the drama now than then."  
"We don't know it'll get that far," Nero reminded her, "And besides, we were able to keep the school safe for years before they came here. If we need their help urgently - then we can ask for it. Until then, I need you to go to Russia. You have to try and find her - it's the only way we can for sure keep them safe."  
Raven looked as though she'd disagree, but then thought better of it. "Fine. I'll leave in the morning."

* * *

"Do you remember what we were discussing the other night?" Shelby asked, as she and Laura cam into Wing and Otto's room.

"Getting Franz into exercise?" Otto guessed as Laura sat down next to him.  
"Exactly. I'm bored, so...any ideas?"  
"Design a treadmill that dispenses cookies every time he runs a mile," Laura offered. "The question is how we can get the calories he burns on the treadmill to outweigh the calories he gains from the cookie."  
"Or just a race with cookies as the prize, it would save us building a treadmill - not that we couldn't," Shelby suggested.  
"Why do we want to get Franz into exercise again?" Wing asked.  
"You're right, we talked about of lots of other stuff that night," Shelby agreed. "Nerds One and Two, make HIVEmind a girlfriend. HIVEbrain or something."  
"Later. We haven't finished the hacking program yet. Why don't _you_ do it?"  
"That's like me saying 'why don't _you_ go and compete on American Ninja Warrior'. No, you two do it and me and the big guy will..."  
"Stay out of it altogether?" Wing suggested.  
"...host a party in the common room," Shelby finished. "If you two can drag yourselves away from your screens - and each other - for long enough, you're invited."  
"We are already having a dance," Wing gently told Shelby.  
"In eleven months. Besides, this is different. It's a _secret_ party, the teachers don't find out. Don't you get a thrill from danger anymore?"  
"We will host a party in the common room," Wing gave in with a grin. "I like danger in small doses. By the way, Otto's hijacked the security here so that you can't get sound on recordings, but since you didn't know that, it was unwise to mention it so openly."  
"Whoops," Shelby said, unabashed. "Anyway, if they do find out, they'll just play along to see if we go through with it, remember?"  
"That is indeed what happened the last time we tried to keep something from the school. Also, hey! Malpense! I figured out a way to stop Wing's snoring!"  
Otto, who'd been deep in conversation with Laura, spun around sharply.  
"Huh?"  
"It worked. Malpense, Wing and I are hosting a secret party in the common room next week."  
"I am offended," Wing said.  
"Aw, don't be upset. You snore, big deal. Anyway, are you in? Either of you?"  
"Sure. I never miss out on a chance to cause trouble, do I?" Otto said.  
"Why not," Laura agreed. "But if we're caught, I'm blaming everything on you."  
Shelby's smiled widened. "Oh, this year just keeps on getting better.

* * *

Raven sat on her bed, her head full of thoughts. This wasn't the first time she and Nero had disagreed over something, but it was the first time Raven had been in favour of enlisting the help of the quartet. Before, there was a valid reason not to have them on board - but now they were in their sixth year and almost nineteen, and had faced more dangers than many G.L.O.V.E. operatives. She'd seen each one of them save the day countless times, and was sure they could and would help on the mission - but Nero was nearly twice her age, and technically her boss. With everything they'd been through together, she ought to trust his judgement by now.  
Her mind flashed back to a time almost three years ago, when she and Wing were arguing over whether he could stay in Brazil and help find Otto.

 _"I am not returning without Otto," Wing said firmly.  
"You'll do what you're damn well told," Raven said firmly. "Nero wants you back, and I've made it a habit never to argue with him."  
"That is most obedient of you," Wing said with just the barest hint of sarcasm.  
"Don't push it," Raven said with a frown. "I can just as easily take you there unconscious in the car boot."_

Wing had managed to sway her then, and he certainly seemed to be managing now. Was Raven the kind of person who would prevent the surest way out because someone else said not to?

 _He's your boss,_ a small voice reminded her. _He knows what to do._

Sighing, Raven made a decision. If it got any worse than it was, Raven would tell the group. They deserved to know when they were being hunted.

 **A/N: As you can see, I have some experience with parkour and hacking. Sorry if some of the words are confusing.**


	4. Chapter 4

Laura sat at her computer, fingers dancing across the keyboard as she wrote line after line of code. It was very hard to make a computer do something a human's brain took so long to master, but she knew she could teach the program to hack for her.

 **Otto: Still there?**

She smiled to herself as the message popped up on her screen. Clearly this program was giving him sleepless nights too.

 **Laura: Yep. Debug my code, will you?**

Another mouse appeared on her screen as Otto searched the code for mistakes - one of the first programs they'd made together was a code editor made so they could work on the same project together.

 **Otto:** **Can't find any issues. Why are you still up? We have that S &E test tomorrow.**

 **Laura: Same reason as you. This thing isn't going to code itself.**

 **Otto: You should get some sleep, it's almost midnight.**

 **Laura: Only if you do.  
**

 **Otto: *sigh* goodnight, then.**

His mouse disappeared from her screen. Sighing with fatigue and frustration, Laura shut down the computer and climbed into bed.

"That program must be hard if it takes both of you so long to code," she heard Shelby say from the other bed.

"Shel? You're still up?"

"You forgot to lower the brightness. Also, you talk to yourself a lot when you're confused."

Laura sighed in spite of herself. "I'll work on it. Goodnight."

With her screen off, she didn't see Otto's mouse reappearing and beginning to get back to work.

* * *

As soon as his computer told him that Laura had signed off, Otto opened the program again and set to work. It wasn't as though he had anything better to do - he'd never gotten less than a perfect mark on a Stealth and Evasion test and Wing's snoring was keeping him up. He was sure that once Laura saw that there had been new code made during the night she'd be annoyed with Otto, but he wasn't tired and everyone always suffered if Laura stayed up too late.

This code was frustrating him. His extreme ability to hack that being a clone gave him was significantly less useful when he was trying to teach a computer without intelligence to do the same - however, once Laura was on board, the program had started to come together perfectly and this didn't irritate him like he'd thought it would. It was surprisingly nice to have someone else on his level.

"Why are you still awake, my friend?" a sleepy Wing said. "It is past midnight and we -"

"Have a test tomorrow, I know," Otto said tiredly. "I can't sleep and I thought I should get something done. Why are _you_ up?"

"I had a dream and woke up. I will go back to sleep now, but I think you should too."

Otto gave in and shut down the laptop. He would probably regret the late night in the morning.

* * *

"Morning, everyone," Shelby said, prancing down the hall (nobody was more ready for the test than she was.) She looked somewhat sleepy, but still her usual cheerful self. "Looking forward to the test today?"

"No," Laura grumbled. "It's our second week in school and they already give us tests. I have better things to do than have my sneakiness marked. Like my coding. And speaking of which..."

She put her hands on her hips and glared at Otto.

"How come when I switched on my computer this morning it had about a hundred new lines of code?"

"Ooooh, scary," Shelby said. Laura redirected her gaze. "Okay, sorry, bad time."

Otto had been expecting this. "You try and fall asleep with a chainsaw in the background."

"What chainsaw?" Wing asked as he showed up. "Good morning. Is everyone looking forward to the test?"

"That's what I said too," Shelby smiled. "Morning, big guy."

"Good morning, Shelby."

"I'm going to find the coffee," Laura announced. "Otto, I don't like you working on the code without me after you've asked me to help you. Don't do it again." She stalked off towards the counter.

"Looks like you screwed up, Malpense," Shelby said, wagging her finger. "She has a point, though."

"I guess so. I just -"

"Couldn't sleep? Wanted to show off? Whatever it is, save it for Laura. You _did_ ask her to help you. Now, I want some of that coffee. Brand, wait up!" Shelby ran off after Laura.

Otto looked at Wing.

"Otto, I have to agree with the girls on this one," Wing said ruefully. "Now come along, I want to be early for the test."

He followed Wing over to the hall where the test was taking place. It had been made into a maze and painted white to make blending in as hard as possible.

"Looks like the albino has some advantage today," Shelby commented as she appeared out of nowhere. "This should be fun. Now, how will we find Ms Leon?" She looked around, her eyes scanning every nook and cranny until her gaze stopped at a turn. "Aha!"

"Hello, you four," the cat greeted them. "Now, today's test is fairly straightforward. You have to navigate the maze without been caught or preferably even spotted. The longer you stay inside the maze, the more obstacles are thrown your way. While you are waiting for your turn, you'll be sitting a theory test in the next room. For a perfect grade, you need 100% on your theory test and to get around the maze in less than fifteen minutes."

"What's straightforward about that?" Laura said as Ms Leon began explaining the test to another group of students. "How do we navigate a white-painted maze in black uniform and not get spotted?"  
"Well," Shelby said in her lecture voice, "You need to use corners and shadows for optimum concealment, and when that won't work you can never go wrong by crossing the ceiling-"  
"No conferring!" Ms Leon growled.  
"Whoops, sorry," Shelby said sheepishly. "Make sure you don't attract attention," she whispered with a wink. "People often ignore the dumb obvious."  
"Mr Fanchu, you're up first!" Ms Leon called. "The rest of you, into the next room." The cat herded them all out and they filed into the classroom.  
Shelby sat down and looked at her paper. She smiled - she'd covered most of this years ago.

The lack of teachers in the classroom was causing a rise in the noise level, and it was bothering Shelby.  
"Shut up, you lot. For all we know Raven is strapped to the ceiling getting ready to pounce on people swapping answers."  
Everyone was silent.  
"No? No Raven? Ah well. Keep quiet anyway, I've never failed a Stealth and Evasion test and I don't want to start today."

* * *

Wing looked around both corners. Around one corner, there was a dead end. Around the other was a guard approaching. Thinking quickly, he ducked down and backed up against the wall, then slunk around the guard and kept going. His shoes were making too much noise, so he untied them, pushed himself to the top of the wall, and threw them as far in the other direction as he could. They landed with a thump somewhere far away. That should keep them all distracted for a while.

For a few minutes, Wing navigated the maze without difficulty - every time he heard a guard approaching he would hoist himself over the wall to the other side, and in this way managed to avoid confrontation for quite a while. He had a fleeting sensation that the end was near, when he walked right into a guard. Without stopping to think it through, he punched him in the face and left him dead on the floor, then grabbed his monitor, pressed a button and then threw it to the other end of the maze - he'd found that sort of distraction to be quite effective. He gritted his teeth and turned a few more corners until he came out of the maze.

"Eleven minutes and four seconds. Not bad," Ms Leon said. "A guard found your shoes. Now, this door goes to the classroom. Tell Miss Trinity she's next and I'll expect perfect marks on that test!"

"Hey there," Shelby greeted him warmly. "How'd you do?"  
"Eleven minutes and four seconds. You're up next, good luck."  
"Thanks, big guy. You too."

Shelby went out and over to the hall. Scanning the maze, she immediately pushed herself to the top of the wall and from there, jumped towards the ceiling. She missed and fell down, dropping silently then trying again straight away. After a few tries, she gave up and simply crossed the maze from the top of the walls. Every time a guard came her way, she'd jump to a far away wall. Unfortunately, there were a lot of guards and it grew increasingly harder to find a wall without nearby guards. For a while she had to lie on the walls and pull herself along, which worked stupidly well - she hadn't been lying about missing the dumb obvious. Eventually, she spotted the end of the maze and leapt from one wall to another without stopping until she was out.

"Interesting approach. Eleven minutes and four seconds."

"Damn it," Shelby muttered.

"Tell Miss Brand she's up. Finish the test and then hand it into to me."

"Brand, you're up," Shelby said as she opened the door. "Eleven minutes and four seconds, I'm so annoyed."

Laura really didn't want to exceed fifteen minutes. As soon as she entered, she started to find her way around the maze. Her best tactic, she decided, would be more _Evasion_ than _Stealth_. Everytime she spotted a guard, she simply went behind him for a few seconds, echoing his footsteps and then heading off again. She felt pretty pleased with this tactic. One time, she ran into a guard and simply grabbed his monitor, turned it off, then pierced the off button with a hairgrip so that it couldn't be used to alert anyone to her presence. Then she turned around and kept going.

"Twelve and a half minutes," Ms Leon said as Laura found her way out. "Pretty good. Mr Malpense is up next. If you've finished the test, leave it on my desk and you can go back to your room."

"Otto, it's your turn," Laura said. "Good luck."

Otto had figured out his plan already - it had taken him some time to come up with something that didn't involve his talent (even though you ought to use every advantage you had, Otto wanted to make sure that if it was ever removed he could still get anything done). His original plan had just been to hack all the monitors with his mind, but instead, he simply looked at the maze carefully. Everything had a weakness, and it took Otto seconds to find the maze's - built into the wall were the most minuscule motion sensors that picked up on his movements. He considered disabling them, but he figured that, too, would call guards. He backed up against the wall as much as he could and sneaked past the sensors. To his relief, when he turned around he couldn't see or hear any guards coming. Following this method, Otto finished the maze in eleven minutes, fifty-nine seconds.

* * *

"There were motion sensors!" Shelby exclaimed, smacking her forehead. "Leave it to Nerd One to spot those. I _knew_ there was a reason there were so many guards - my movements weren't exactly small. _Motion sensors!_ How didn't I think of that!"

"You were still faster than him," Wing reminded her.

"But I tied with you, didn't I, karate kid? At least I didn't leave my shoes behind."

The four were discussing their chosen ways around the maze, laughing at each other's slip-ups and applauding at their successes.

"Well, Brand, I think I've taught you something," Shelby said with satisfaction.

"What, about the spotting the obvious?"

"Hairgrips are your best friend. And the spotting the obvious, I guess. But I'm glad I can teach you so much."

"I'm impressed Otto found a way to not cheat," Laura pointed out.

"Technically, it wouldn't have been cheating to use my abilities to my advantage," Otto said indignantly. "That's like saying, Laura, you're in this hacking team, but you can't help them because that would be cheating." Laura blushed at the compliment. Shelby "awwww"ed.

"On a side-note, I want to know where Raven was," Shelby said. "I really was expecting her to jump out of the ceiling like -" she mimed dropping and taking out katanas "-Quite right, Miss Trinity. No cheating is allowed."

"She is most likely away on business for Doctor Nero," Wing suggested. "But I wonder what for."

"Well, keep on wondering, big guy," Shelby said. "Unless someone shows up at the school with an army, it's unlikely that we'll find out."


	5. Chapter 5

Shelby was swimming. Lately her sleepless nights had increased, and on such occasions she liked to make use of the facilities the accommodation had to offer. Once she'd even gone to the library, although she'd never let Laura know.  
Shelby'd never been the kind of person to spend an extensive amount of time studying for tests, or to study at all if she could help it. Once she had the idea, she could pass the test with flying colours and hence put no more effort in afterwards. In fact, she'd put much more effort into learning to keep her daydreaming discreet than she ever had into her studies until she came to H.I.V.E. - not only were her classes much more interesting, but even when she had a natural ability for the subject, much harder. It was strange to imagine life after this place - this wasn't the kind of school filled with people to look up to as career inspiration, and the only 'career' she'd ever had was her brief time spent as the Wraith.  
In fact, it was this that kept Shelby up so often - as fun as it had been, she knew she couldn't be the Wraith forever, and wasn't sure if she wanted to keep being the Wraith at all. After six years of regular world-saving, Shelby had realised what a waste of potential it would be to spend her life as something as trivial as a jewel thief (for by now, she'd long outgrown her love for expensive things.) If nothing else, H.I.V.E. had taught her there would be the easy, straightforward way and the complicated, more sophisticated and stylish way - and that the latter was always the one to pick. There weren't many other jobs though, thought Shelby, that seemed to fulfill all the requirements - except...

Shelby smiled and, drying herself, returned to her room. She knew she'd sleep well tonight.

* * *

"Does everyone realise what day it is?" Laura said excitedly.

"Saturday!" Shelby punched the air. "The Gods of Weekendus have granted us a whole forty-eight hours that we may fill with -"

"A gameathon," Otto and Laura said simultaneously.

"Sure, I wouldn't mind shooting some sim people for once. Praise ye, Oh Holy Gods of Weekendus!"

"Why is Shelby bowing down?" Wing said with a puzzled expression as he came into the hall.

"Sssshhh, give her some privacy. She's worshipping the Holy Gods of Weekendus." Laura grinned as she bit down into a bacon roll.

"Shelby is a pagan?"

"No, but she really, really likes weekends," Shelby explained. "Hey there, big guy. The three of us are having a gameathon today, you in? Call of Duty first, please."

"While I do not understand what pleasure there is to be gained from mindlessly shooting at fake people when there is plenty of real shooting to be done every week or so," Wing said, "I would very much like to join in."

"YES!" Shelby cheered and hugged Wing. "It took us five years, but we taught the big guy to have fun! This is the best weekend ever!"

"I know how to have fun," Wing said, looking slightly wounded.

"Of course you do," Shelby said affectionately. "I'll get the snacks!"

Five years at a school like H.I.V.E. could make anyone competitive. When you give a game an element of danger without any actual danger, it's not hard to guess that it'll be popular among the H.I.V.E. students.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! AND SHELBY WINS AGAIN!"

(Then again, when the students in question are all brilliant shots and very competitive, you can expect a lot of sore losers and bad winners among the lot.)

"Second," Laura followed, reaching for the popcorn. "I'll take that. _This_ time."

"And last time, and the time before, _and_ the time before. They say that second is the first of the losers, you know."

Laura hmmphed. "I see. I suppose you'll have to find that out for yourself."

"She's got the Look," Otto warned Shelby. Frequent gaming matches had taught them all that when Laura made a certain face, nobody was getting in her way.

"You are aware that nobody can defeat Laura after she has the Look," Wing reminded her. "I'd advise you to get ready to give your position up."

"You're talking like a quitter. That doesn't sound like the Mr Ninja Guy we know," Shelby moaned. "I don't care if she has death in her eyes, I can beat her and you can all watch as I beat her. " Shelby pressed a button. "Okay, new match starting in 3...2...1..."

Quick as a flash, Shelby started to navigate her character around the battlefield, shooting at everyone she saw.

"Sorry, big guy," she said smugly as she pushed the 'fire' button. "And sorry, Nerd One. Whoop, and Nerd Two."

"You too," Laura replied triumphantly as she respawned behind Shelby and pressed 'stab'. Shelby shrugged. "Not the first time." However, she did start keeping an eye on Laura's location and staying away.

"Getting scared, are we?" Lara smirked. She shot a robot player, spun round and stabbed another.

"Being smart, we are. When you have good opponents, you keep your distance. I may be best, but that doesn't make you bad." Shelby turned around and fired immediately. "Oh, someone was actually there. Sorry, Otto."

"Be glad I don't hold grudges," Otto said. "Oh, sorry robot. No, you're not a robot." He looked at Shelby. "Okay, I hold grudges."

"My sincerest apologies, Otto," Wing said, stabbing him and collecting his gun. "It was a fine gun you were using." He ran off in Shelby's direction.

"You're much less of a ninja when you're holographic," Shelby said, shooting him and a robot in the same second. "Hi Laura. Umm...look, a puppy!" Shelby dashed in the other direction.

"Not so fast!" Laura charged after Shelby.

"Fight, fight, fight, fight!" Otto chanted. "Back me up, Wing."

"Fight," Wing replied.

"Is it cheating if I snatch out her controller?" Shelby asked, ducking as Laura fired.

"Yes."

"Guess I'll have to do this the slightly more difficult way - aaah! No, you missed. Oh, and now you're out of bullets. Ha ha." Shelby spun around and fired, and the game ended. She leaned back, satisfied.

* * *

"You know what I heard?" Otto whispered conspiratorially.

"That lunch tastes better with a side of victory?" Shelby asked. Laura sighed.

"Raven's back," he said dramatically.

"And..."

"Lunch tastes better with a side of victory." Otto grinned. "I wonder what she's been up to?"

"Oh, some evil entity with a God complex, same old, same old," Shelby chuckled. "Hopefully whatever it is won't disturb the prom."

Integrated into the shadows, Raven frowned.

"How did you hear?" Laura asked.

"With my ears," Otto replied cheekily. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve."

"HIVEmind told him," Shelby said immediately. "Always knew they were made for each other. No offense, Brand."

"Forgive me if I don't waste time being jealous of floating blue code," Laura said as she stood up. "I'm going to the library. Coming?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"No." Shelby had spent far too long in the library this week already, not that the others were aware.

"Now, that's something I really value," Otto said. "Truly admirable, how someone can feel so strongly about not wanting to do something that they're willing to fail their exams."

"Don't." Shelby had a different agenda on her mind. "I am not spending my weekend in the library. I'll catch up with you guys." She disappeared in her usual manner.

Once the coast was clear, Shelby crept around the school in search of her target. She usually excelled in tracking, but today the situation was quite different. After around an hour, she found what she'd been looking for outside of Nero's office.

"Raven." Shelby appeared.

"What can I do for you, Miss Trinity?" Raven asked. She was fairly tired from her trip, but she'd never let it show and that wouldn't change today.

"I wanted to speak to you."

Raven was slightly taken aback by how differently Shelby was behaving in comparison to her usual self. She guessed it was important.

"Well, here I am."

"Okay, well...I've been thinking about after H.I.V.E. What I'm going to do, I mean. And after here, I don't really think I'll want to keep being the Wraith. And...well...I decided I wanted to be an assassin, like you. And I was wondering if you could help."

Raven was definitely not expecting the conversation to take this route. It was certainly humbling to have a leaver student, especially one as brilliant as Shelby, looking to her for guidance, but more than that, it tied in with something Raven had already wanted Shelby and the others to be aware of.

"Shelby..." Raven thought carefully about what to say. "There's something, actually, that I think would be the perfect opportunity for you to get experience in this field. But you need to promise this stays between us." Shelby nodded. "Max didn't want you to know about this, but he's not always right. Don't tell him I said that, though." She lowered her voice. "Do you remember the Furans?"

 **Cliffhanger...**


	6. Chapter 6

"The Furans were getting old," Raven began. "They didn't want all the work put into their Glasshouse system to be ruined if their luck ran out, and neither of them were the kind to have children."

"So, they...found someone to take over?"

"Good, you're quick. We don't know her real name, but she goes by the codename Blade. Nero never told you about this, and I'm sure Miss Brand didn't go into the details about her stay, but Pietor and Anastastia get rid of any feeling that you have a choice about what you do, and that you're an instrument of murder. Blade didn't get out as fast as I did, and so she's become almost attached to the pair."

"And now they're gone."

"And she wants to avenge them," Raven finished grimly. "Soon."

"Well." Shelby didn't seem overwhelmed or scared by this news, so much as curious. "For starters, didn't they die...like two years ago? We'd all kind of, well, forgotten about it, more or less." Shelby frowned. "Or was that the idea?"

"That would certainly be the reason if it was me. We can only guess."

"Hmm...so since I'm kind of not meant to know about this, what exactly can I do? I mean, I'm always happy to kick someone's ass, but usually Nero's on board."

"Yes, I did think about that, Miss Trinity. I would _train_ you first, because unless you significantly progress the mission there won't be another chance."

"So...no pressure, huh?"

"Exactly. And please, try to keep this from your friends for as long as possible. I'm sure they'd be very helpful too, but I don't want to be weighted down. Also, I find it hard to see a way one of them wouldn't end up spilling to half the school."

"Got it. Um, about this training..."

"Oh. Every Wednesday...no, Tuesday night. Don't want to keep you from your other...activities." Raven almost grinned as Shelby's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"How do you -"

"First lesson: thou shalt never underestimate thy all-powerful teacher. Got it?"

Shelby nodded slowly.

"Then I'll see you Tuesday." Raven turned on her heel and slipped back into the shadows.

"How does she do that?" Shelby muttered under her breath in frustration, heading back to the atrium.

"Hey everyone, I have arrived," Shelby announced as she burst into the library. "Hope you didn't all miss me too much. Anyway, just came to say I'm going for a swim if anybody wants to join me."

"I will be happy to come with you," Wing said. "As much as I want to pass my tests, I am quite certain my brain will explode if I have to keep looking at quantum computing."

"Why?" Laura said indignantly. "Quantum computing is our whole future, just give it a hundred years and-"

"We'll be dead, thank God, if we're surrounded by quantum computers," Shelby cut in. "We'll leave you two to your Nerdspeak and quantum and whatnot. Have fun!"

"That's not what I said," Laura protested. "I could do with a swim."

"Well, I'm not going to be the Scrooge," Otto said. "Come on."

* * *

"There was really no easier way to do this?" Shelby groaned, clutching at her toe. She'd spent the last half hour dropping from heights onto hard ground (the point was to be able to do it silently, which she could as long as she didn't slip, in which case her complaints were far from silent.)

"There is no way to land silently on a crash mat," Raven reminded her. "Nor will there ever be a need to do so in the real world."

"Well, don't take the training too slowly, will you? I swear my toe's twice its usual size and as brilliant as I clearly am, this is still my first lesson."

"Can't handle the pain?" Raven said, raising her eyebrows. "I've had a glorified lightsaber stabbed in my shoulder. I think you can deal with a stubbed toe."

Shelby sighed. "Okay, okay. Let's get it over with." She climbed up the ladder onto the next level platform.

"If you need a minute..." Raven called out.

"Like you said, glorified lightsaber." Shelby gritted her teeth and jumped down, doing a flip in the air and landing elegantly next to Raven. "Tada!"

"Okay, I think you've got the basic principles. Go to the top." Looking slightly apprehensive, Shelby climbed up to the highest platform - about twelve feet - and tried not to look down.

"I'll push you off," Raven offered, starting to climb the ladder.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Dropping down, Shelby landed with a roll and stood up. "Phew."

Raven smiled. "I know how heartbroken you'll be to hear this, but I think we ought to move on to something else."

"Absolutely devasted. Can I learn to use your lightsabers now?"

"I hope I didn't directly defy Nero's orders so you could learn to use my 'lightsabers'. Which, by the way, are called katanas if that shows up in your finals. No, next you're learning how to get up walls which are completely flat."

"We're assuming here that I don't have a grappler on me?"

"Second lesson: When in doubt, thou shalt always assumeth that thou hast no assistance of any kind. Get up to the first platform without using the ladder."

Shelby frowned, then slowly backed away. When she was a few metres away from the wall, she ran towards and up the wall, grabbing on to the platform just as her momentum gave out.

"Very good, but what would you do if your target was the second platform?"

"Run from further away."

"Won't always work."

"Do you have knives to hand? Or darts, or suction pads?"

"No assistance, remember? But while we're talking about that, please don't ever leave for a mission without several knives and a gun."

"Right." Shelby dropped down and ran towards it again, this time digging her feet into the wall for grip. She pushed up and grabbed the platform.

"Nice job." Raven looked at her watch. "Right, it's half eight. Better go before lockdown."

"Wait! Has there been any news on the mission?"

Raven looked around. "We have tracked Blade's current location to Portofino, Italy."

"Not too far from here, then."

"Exactly. Of course, it could be a red herring, but if we're right, not far at all. Keep your wits about you."

"Right then, see you next week." Shelby darted off back to the accommodation area, where the others immediately started to interrogate her.

"Where have you been?" Laura demanded. "We haven't seen you since dinner."

"Tactical education," Shelby replied smoothly. "Practicing parkour."

"That is where we have been," Wing objected. "We were practicing a few things."

"Oh shoot. Okay, um...I really didn't want to have to tell you guys this, but...I was in the library."

"Don't believe it," Otto interjected. "Shelby Trinity, willingly going to a library?"

"I don't want to fail my exams!"

The three looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Oh, this is brilliant," Laura said with her shoulders heaving. "Were you looking up quantum computers, too?"

"Or better yet - were you revising Economics?" Otto laughed.

 _The price I pay for secrecy_ , Shelby thought to herself. _Great_.

* * *

Laura was sitting in front of her computer, observing the school code. She frequently liked to simply test her hacking abilities by digitally sneaking around the school, sometimes fixing a few bugs. Tonight, she was hunting around the school records, to see how well protected they were, when -

"Uh-oh."

She'd recently developed a program that showed her if somebody else was looking at the code, and it was flashing red over the records - in particular _her_ records. That wasn't even the worst part - the user was 'unknown'.

"What is it?" Shelby leapt out of bed and ran over.

"An unknown user is looking at our records." Shelby's eyes narrowed. "Any idea who?"

"About as much as you," Shelby lied. "What do we do? This could be dangerous, but if it isn't, then Nero will know that you like to take unauthorized peeks at the school records."

"Well, I'll alert HIVEmind. He should be able to figure out what's going on and he won't tell Nero unless he has to. In the meantime - " Laura hit a button and opened a new window - "Keep an eye on that screen. If it flashes red, look at the username and tell me who it is. " She switched on her Blackbox. "HIVEmind, can you do us a favour?"

"I can do anything you ask as long as it is within my range of ability and it does not go against direct orders from a higher authority than you. What can I help you with?"

"Someone who doesn't belong to the school is looking at our records. I need you to see if you can figure out who." HIVEmind nodded.

"Professor Pike just showed up," Shelby said quickly.

"Turn the program off." Shelby obliged. "Well, HIVEmind?"

"Currently there are two people viewing the school's code. Those people are Professor Pike and an anonymous user not held within the school's archives. The anonymous guest is currently viewing Shelby Trinity's history from before she came to H.I.V.E.. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, thanks. And HIVEmind - please don't tell anybody about this." She switched the Blackbox off.

"Okay, somebody is looking at our family records." Laura said grimly. "What do we do?"

"Professor Pike is online. He should be able to spot them and boot them off the network." Shelby sat down. "I had really hoped that this year it would only be the good kind of drama this year. Oh well, hopefully it gets sorted."

"What do you think somebody wants with our records? They're not exactly Shakespeare."

"Hey! 'The Wraith doth stealeth ten million dollars worth of jewels' is a _fascinating_ read. But last time somebody knew where they could find your family..."

"Good point. Well, with any luck, we won't have to get involved this time. Night."

Shelby didn't say anything, let Laura think that they wouldn't be involved this time. She had made a promise, and she was far too smart to break a promise she'd made to Raven. However, she knew that the chance of being kept out of this one would be slim, and she knew exactly who'd been looking poking through their history when she thought nobody was watching.


	7. Chapter 7

Raven leant back and landed the jet on the landing, then skilfully navigated to the airport, left the plane where it was next due, and darted into the airport. When you were a legendary assassin, stealing a plane completely unnoticed was one of those things that just comes naturally.

She took out a compact mirror and did a quick scan of the airport. She didn't know what her target looked like, but years of experience had made that a luxury instead of a necessity, especially since she knew the look of somebody who'd lived in the Glasshouse. Nobody here was a Furan assassin, although by the look of things, plenty of others didn't want to be noticed tonight. Satisfied that she was safe for the time being, Raven oered a drink and something to eat, still checking faces for somebody with a very specific job.

One man, about forty, Italian: he was about to leave for a business trip. Another woman, maybe twenty-five, American: arrived for a honeymoon, judging by the dress, with...that man just behind her: also American, looked stressed. Raven kept scanning, particularly trying to spot those who looked Russian, but she could spot nobody who met what little criteria she had.

She sighed and took a sip of her drink. It seemed that Blade would be a little harder to find.

* * *

"Hey! Nerds One and Two, remember what today is?"

Shelby bounded into the accommodation are, where Otto and Laura were still sitting tapping at their Blackboxes.

"Thursday, September eighth. Ten fifty-eight p.m," Otto replied immediately.

"And what happens at eleven?" Shelby pestered.

"You leave?" Laura said hopefully.

Shelby looked disappointed. "You guys seriously forgot about the party happening in fifty-three seconds?"

"Oh right..."

"You don't have to join in, but since it is in the atrium you may want to leave. If somehow you decide that this is more important than your nerdy coding, blame everything on me if we're caught."

"Are you calling HIVEmind's future girlfriend _nerdy_?" Laura said in mock horror.

"Yes. Extremely so. Anyway, nine seconds to scarper."

"Mmmmmm..." Laura thought. "I'm going to blame everything on you when we're caught."

" _If_ ," Shelby corrected, almost singing with glee. "Turn it up a very tiny bit!"

Otto switched on the radio Shelby had acquired a few days ago to a very low pitch, but the difference in noise was still very noticeable.

"Okay, everyone! Time to party very quietly!" Shelby whisper-shouted. "Has the big guy run away?" She dashed off while everyone came out of their dorms to investigate.

"What is going on?" Franz asked loudly. "I am thinking that we - "

"Sssshhhhhh," Otto and Laura said together.

"What is being the reason for all the shushing?" Franz asked again, in an exaggerated whisper.

"Shelby decided to throw a secret party," Laura said. "This music feels really loud, are you sure it's on quiet?"

"I brought snacks and a ninja!" Shelby announced. "Where is everyone?"

"I would assume that they are attempting to get some sleep," Wing suggested.

"No, this is fun!" A tall girl in a white jumpsuit seemed to be enjoying herself. A group of others nearby made noises of agreement.

"See? They love it!" Shelby grinned. "Loosen up, Brand. If we're caught, we're caught. This school isn't exactly the place to tell people off for breaking rules."

"But we're supposed to be learning to break the rules _without_ getting caught," Otto said. "I guess she has a point, though."

"I always do. Have some popcorn."

There was plenty of loud conversation and even some dancing for the next hour - "I am thinking that Shelby is putting something in the water," Franz said - and Otto and Laura were finally starting to get into the mood.

"I guess this is kind of fun," Laura admitted grudgingly.

"Told you so, told you so, told you so, told you so-"

"And suddenly a lot less fun."

"That is correct." Raven appeared out of nowhere, in her usual fashion. "It seems you all failed to stick to the curfew."

"It was Shelby," Laura cut in.

Raven looked at her, slightly amused. "Just how stupid do you think I am? Or more importantly, how stupid do you think Miss Trinity is?"

"What do you mean?" Otto said.

"Look around."

Shelby had done a Raven.

"I'm going to kill her," Laura muttered.

"Don't worry, get back to your room and I promise she'll have joined you in twenty minutes. With a detention."

Laura looked slightly appeased by this and turned to go.

It ended up taking Raven twenty-five minutes to hunt Shelby down, an embarrassing time even when faced with such a challenge.

"There you are," Shelby said, dropping down from the ceiling. "I was beginning to think you'd never get here. Listen, Laura found something last week and I haven't had the chance to speak to you."

Quickly and quietly, Shelby explained about Laura's program and the anonymous hacker looking at their records. Raven listened, her expression unchanging.

"So, she's not only a Furan assassin but a master hacker," Raven finally said. "Next week should certainly prove to be interesting."

"Next week?" Shelby frowned, confused. "We have that trip to France, don't we?"

"Italy."

Shelby looked somewhat worried as she realised what Raven was saying.

"So, we're putting the entire stream of Alphas within a couple kilometres of where we suspect a master hacker and assassin who wants us all dead to be?" Shelby said, looking apprehensive.

"Basically. The idea is, if Blade is is Italy, she'll come and find us, and we'll be ready. If she doesn't come, there's as ninety-nine percent chance that she isn't nearby. The other one per cent is she's not ready yet."

"Still seems a little risky."

"Then it's a good thing you have another training session tomorrow. Miss Brand is under the impression that it's a detention, so I'd prefer it stays that way."

Shelby nodded. "So, for the purpose of secrecy, she's not in trouble for poking around the school network? Not complaining, just...okay, maybe complaining just a little."

"A school for villainy is hardly the place to punish someone for breaking the rules, as you should be aware of by now, Miss Trinity. I seem to remember the last time Miss Brand had a go at the system, she saved the entire school."

"Point taken. Okay, see you tomorrow."

* * *

"Someone's in trouble," Laura said the following morning, buttering her toast.

"Someone is also extremely charming and persuasive and got away with a single detention," Shelby smirked. "But anyway, onto more important things. I hear we're playing Capture the Flag this morning."

"Not so fast," Laura said. "Blame it all on me, she said. I'll take full credit, she said. Then I turn around and you're playing hide-and-seek with the Ice Queen."

"I'm the only one with detention, so stop complaining. Are you a better attacker or defender?"

Laura rolled her eyes. "Defender."

"I thought so. Come on, let's see what you've got." Shelby stood up and pranced over to the Tactical Education department. "Hurry up, Brand!"

"Today you will be faced with an extremely useful and educational challenge - Capture the Flag at H.I.V.E. tests your physical ability, your teamwork, leadership, stealth and strategizing. That's probably too much for most of you to handle, but we will see."

As usual, the Colonel was in a happy-grumpy mood - it was his job to set up the playing 'field' and his apparent cheerfulness was causing a lot of worry over what it would look like. "I've split you into two teams, red and blue. It's simple enough - get to the other team's base, get the flag, get back to your base and you score a point. First team with five points wins. You all also have guns, which when you are hit with, you are knocked out for around thirty seconds and when you wake up, you have to go back to your base and start again. Questions? No? Good. Here are your teams..."

"Looks like I'm with you, Malpense," Shelby said, putting on a blue sash from the pile laid out. "I somehow get the feeling you're going to cheat."

"I don't think there are many computers involved in Capture the Flag," Otto pointed out.

Shelby shrugged. "If tall, dark and handsome over there comes up behind you, remember; he's very, very, very ticklish."

"I'll remember that," Otto promised. "Afraid Laura's not as easy, mainly because she uses her gun. But if she's pretty easy to trip up."

'

"...and make sure you feint to one direction. Shelby always falls for it," Wing instructed Laura as she put on a red sash.

"I'll keep that in mind," Laura replied. "And I'm sorry to tell you, but I don't really know any of Otto's weaknesses except he doesn't like to fail."

"I am sure it will come in useful at some point.

'

"Anyway, we have Franz, who I still can't believe is such a good shot, but he is, so we should be fine," Shelby finished explaining her strategies to the team. Franz beamed.

"Okay, stop the huddle, pick up your guns and follow me!" Francisco yelled. He led the Alphas into an enormous hall full of walls and tunnels and bars and placed to hide. Shelby smiled.

"Okay, this is the playing field. Teams, go to your bases. As you can see, there are a lot of platforms. Don't worry, there's water at the bottom, but if you fall in, you're out. Good luck...you'll need it."

The teams sprinted over to the flagposts set up and started forming defenses.

"Okay, Franz, you're on defense," Shelby ordered. "We'll be fine as long as you keep your eyes open. Otto, I've never really been sure what you do best, but just...do what you do best. I'll go and get the flag, you and you, back me up. Everyone else, just run around and be distracting. Don't fall in. We good?"

"I am wondering if all this time taught by Colonel Francisco has rubbed off on Shelby," Franz muttered.

"Time's up! Start in three - two - one -"

Shelby jumped over to a platform, ran up a wall and landed neatly next to Nigel.

"Shoot," she said, pulling the trigger. "Pun intended." She fired at a few others and vaulted over to a ledge perched above the flag base. "Hey, no fair!" she yelled down to where Laura was firing bullet after bullet with an evil grin that was unusual for her. Thinking fast, Shelby dropped down and stuck her foot out, tripping Laura over.

"Be glad we're friends," she said smugly, "because it would take just as long to push you off." She fired her gun and then twisted past the web of defenders, grabbed the flag, and quickly slipped back out. Not stopping, she made her way base easily until -

"Brilliant," Laura smirked, snatching the flag out of Shelby's hand and shooting. "Bye now."

Wing jumped from platform to platform, dodging bullets and taking care not to attract attention. He was almost at the flag, but if he kept going in that direction Franz would spot him and if he went in the other direction he'd have to get past Otto. The decision was easy.

"I am most sorry," Wing apologized, kicking Otto over the edge. Sneaking past Franz, he grabbed the flag, then turned around to see Shelby grinning at him. He aimed a punch at her, but she caught his wrist.

"Considering I know all of your most ticklish spots, that doesn't seem like a good idea," Shelby said cheerfully. "I see Otto's disappeared. Not cool, big guy." She shot him squarely in the chest. "Now, I have to go hunt down a certain Scot."

It took several trips back before Shelby ran into Laura.

"Recovered, have you?" Laura said. She feinted to the left and twisted out of the way as Shelby lunged in that direction, then spun round rapidly as she realised what Laura was up to.

"Did Wing tell you to do that?" Shelby said, hooking her leg around Laura's ankle. "Next time, I'll have to push him off. Say hi to Otto for me." She twisted her leg and sent Laura flying off the edge.

"Who got you?" Otto said as she fell with a splash into the pool. He was sitting at the side, still looking slightly damp.

"Starts with 'S', ends with 'helby'," Laura said ruefully. "Sounds like 'total pain in the ass'. How about you?"

"Wing," Otto said, looking somewhat irritated. "Oh well, looks like we have a long wait ahead."

In the end the red team won, much to Shelby's chagrin, but she was somewhat mollified to hear that there would be a rematch in a week or two.

"Hey there, Nerds One and Two," she greeted them. "I stayed alive longer than both of you, but I'm sorry to say that wasn't enough to win. It turns out that once Wing decides a tranquilizer gun isn't so immoral after all, he's a wicked shot."

"Really?" Otto said, raising his eyebrows. "How did that end up happening?"

"Well, I spotted Wing doing his ninja thing, I was about to shoot him, because he told Laura how to beat me, and he made this face like 'screw it, I'm about to lose and besides I'm not actually killing anyone', and then, zap. At least I wasn't by an edge."

* * *

Raven sat at her computer, scanning through the system trying to find an intruder. It was becoming increasingly harder not to tell the others about Blade, especially with displays of brilliance like this one. The trip to Venice was five days away, and she despite the logic behind the plan, having the four of them a four-hour drive from Portofino with only one of them aware of the situation did not make her too happy.

Perhaps she'd get lucky, and Shelby would ended up spilling to the others, saving her the job of defying Nero a second time. But thanks to her aura of menace, Shelby had probably decided to keep it to herself a little longer. She'd never been so unhappy to be so terrifying.

Just then, something popped up on her screen. Raven read it and cursed under her breath in Russian, then finally called Nero on her Blackbox.

"Max," she said quietly, pointing her screen towards the computer. "This has gone too far. I'm letting them know tomorrow and that's final."


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you okay, Otto?" Laura asked. Ever since the Shroud had landed in Venice, he'd been quiet and looking a bit depressed.

"I'm fine," Otto sighed. "It's just...she was Italian."

"Oh."

Laura went silent. Despite everything that had happened between Lucy and Otto, Lucy had been a good friend and a wonderful person and Laura had mourned her every bit as much as Otto.

"Is there anything I can do?"

Otto shrugged.

"Should I tell the others not to bother you?"

"No, we aren't here to wallow. Come on, we should go see what we'll be getting up to this week."

All the same, as Laura went to her room she made sure Shelby was aware of the situation.

"Shelby, are you in the ceiling again?" she called. "Come down, I need to talk to you."

Shelby dropped down without making a sound.

"I'm getting rather good at that," she said happily. "What is it?"

"Otto's not feeling very cheerful at the moment, and while there are many, very positive adjectives I could use to describe you, _sensitive_ isn't one of them," Laura said. "Could you maybe, I don't know...give him some space?"

"Why isn't he cheerful?" Shelby asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Lucy was Italian."

Shelby nodded. "Okay, I'll try and not bother him. But I would like to hear about all these positive adjectives..."

"Whoops," Laura muttered. "Not now, Shel, we've got to go."

"Well, since we're roomies, there'll be plenty of time later on," Shelby said. "On we go."

.

* * *

.

"Hello, everyone," Ms Leon addressed the Alphas. "For those of you who don't know what this week entails, I'll brief you now.

"As you can see, Venice is very big, and very, very easy to get lost in, making it the perfect place to hide, which is exactly what you will all be doing. Each of you is assigned to another student, and your job is to track down and 'assassinate' them, all the while hiding from your own assassin. Throughout today, you are assigned your target and given a chance to prepare. Then once it gets dark, you will start hiding. You aren't allowed to start tracking until sunrise tomorrow, giving you the night to hide. The rules are as follows..."

"This will be so much fun," Shelby said cheerfully.

"I'll be saying that once they make a digital equivalent of this challenge," Laura replied.

"...teaming is relative, and of course, no real weapons. Questions?" Laura raised her hand. "Yes, Miss Brand?"

"So what's the accommodation for if we're running around Venice all week?"

It was hard to tell, but the cat appeared to be smiling. "Were you planning to spend the entire week hiding on an empty stomach? In each cabin, we put new supplies there every day. If you can get there without being ambushed, it's yours for the taking. Otherwise, you'll most likely be breaking into the supermarket."

"All right. But what does teaming is relative mean?"

"The wider you make a circle, the more likely it holds a traitor. Your 'teammate' could end up telling your target, effectively removing your element of surprise and making your job a whole lot harder. On the other hand, learning who to trust is an important skill, so if you're so sure you can trust them, then that's your choice."

"Sounds complicated. "

"You're a senior year student, Miss Brand, you can manage. No more questions? All right, to your cabins. You will get a message on your Blackbox in exactly ten minutes telling you who your target is."

"So are we teaming up?" Shelby asked as she kicked the cabin door open. "I mean, either one of us is assigned to the other, which...awkward, or we aren't."

"I guess so. I'll probably fail otherwise."

Shelby smirked. "Good thing you're so trustworthy. Considering it's a school for villains, I'd almost call you a goody-two-shows, but since you're my teammate now, I don't think that's a great idea."

"Huh."

Just then, the girls' Blackboxes pinged and a name popped up on the screens.

"I'll tell you if you tell me."

"Franz. You?"

"Some Alpha called Sophie." Shelby showed Laura the picture on her screen. Do we know her?"

Laura shook her head. "I wonder what the boys got."

.

"So, are we telling each other who we got?" Otto asked.

Wing smiled ruefully. "You are a most wonderful friend and an admirable person, but I am not completely sure I can trust you."

Otto shook his head. "Why does everyone get that way? It isn't like I cheat...well...I don't betray people, okay?"

"If you tell me, I shall tell you."

"Fine then. Nigel."

Wing made a face. "I have been assigned to assassinate...Shelby."

Otto raised his eyebrows. "As in, Shelby Trinity, formerly known as the Wraith, your girlfriend?"

Wing nodded and the two began to laugh.

.

* * *

.

"Alpha students, you have ten minutes."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Laura grumbled, switching off the voice coming from her Blackbox. "I honestly don't get why everybody's so excited about this."

"Because we get to be ninja assassins all week!" Shelby said happily, refusing to let Laura ruin her good mood.

"Don't we do that all week, every week anyway?" Laura reminded her.

"Oh cheer up, Brand. Six days and then you can have months and months of coding excursion!"

"Doesn't really count as an excursion, since we live there."

"Well can you seriously imagine going all the way to Venice just to sit at a laptop? You have all the equipment you need at H.I.V.E., so be happy this week, for me, and then you can spend the whole rest of the year staring at a screen."

Shelby tucked her lockpicking kit into her shoe and slung her bag over her back. "Come on!"

"Hey guys," Laura greeted Wing and Otto as the Alphas assembled outside the accommodation lodge. "Excited?"

Otto said "kind of" at the same time that Wing said "very much".

"You two sound just like us," Shelby chirped, putting an arm around each of their shoulders. "Come on Laura, get in there, we won't be seeing each other all week." Otto winked at Wing as Shelby dragged them all into a hug.

"All right everyone, it is one minute to midnight. At midnight, you will depart from here into the streets of Venice, and when the sun goes up at approximately seven, you may begin to track down your targets. Just to remind you, you may hide anywhere as long as no disturbance is caused and there are supplies regularly placed in each of the cabins. As long as you stick to all the rules, we won't be seeing you until you return here on Saturday. Good luck!"

All the lights were switched off, and with the new moon they were left in total blackness. There was a lot of pushing and shoving as the Alphas all started to run off in different directions.

"Shelby, remember, we need to steal a gondola fast," Laura muttered. During the afternoon, she had made use of the equipment provided to build a miniature intercom system that strapped to her ear.

"Roger," Shelby whispered. "Any chance this walkie-talkie comes with GPS?"

"No, but street names do," Laura replied. "There are a bunch of gondolas unsupervised outside the Gritti Palace Hotel. How far away are you?"

Shelby stopped and pulled a flashlight and a map out of her bag. "I can be there in ten minutes. Just crouch down and hide in the gondola."

True to her word, Shelby showed up outside the hotel within exactly ten minutes.

"Which one are you in?" Shelby whispered, hopping from gondola to gondola. "Whoop - woah - this is fun!"

"Please don't jump on me," Laura said quietly as she sat up. "Get in, let's go."

Shelby leapt in and landed neatly without causing the boat so much as to shake. "Are we taking turns rowing, or what?"

"Since you clearly have the most energy, wake me up when you get tired," Laura muttered, taking her jacket off and covering herself with it. "You know, I think it's so convenient that gondolas come with cushions."

.

Otto looked around. Nobody seemed to be there, and his eyes had adjusted to the darkness by then.

"Wing?" he called out quietly. "I think they've all left. Come on, let's get inside."

"I feel most fortunate that our plan does not involve sleeping on a gondola or a rooftop," Wing muttered, sticking a paperclip into the lock. "You know, I am suddenly beginning to wish that during at least one of Shelby's many lockpicking seminars, I'd paid attention."

"Oh well, you have until seven to pick that lock, so don't worry," Otto reassured his friend. "If all else fails, the window never has such high security."

"Good thinking."

Within moments they were inside the accomodation and prowling around in the darkness.

"So which is Shelby and Laura's room?" Wing asked. "I did not think to ask."

"I'm guessing here, but we could start by looking in the girls section," Otto suggested. Wing rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure I saw Laura go into room seventeen earlier."

"We are lucky your memory is so photographic," Wing muttered. "Here we are."

Wing shoved the door open to reveal two perfectly made bunks, but there was no sign that it was or wasn't the room they were looking for.

"By any chance does Shelby wear perfume?" Otto grinned as they went in.

"I am not sure how to appropriately answer that question," Wing replied, keeping a straight face.

"All the same, I think this is her room," Otto said, gesturing to several barely noticeable hairgrips lying on the floor. "Right, get comfortable."

Otto locked the door and moved a chair up against it.

"So, since I'm not tired, how are things between you and Shelby?" Otto said as he lay down.

"The same as usual," Wing said passively. "And you and Laura?"

"Hold up, you don't escape that easily."

"Oh dear, I am suddenly starting to feel very tired. Do you think we could go to sleep now?"

.

* * *

.

Laura gently shook Shelby, resisting the urge to slap her. "Shel, wake UP. The sun's coming up and I for one do not want to be only half-awake when we start getting tracked down. For all we know, it could be another super-ninja."

"As much as I'd love to talk about how you consider me a super-ninja, Brand, you don't seem to have done a great job of the rowing shift," Shelby said, rubbing her eyes. "In fact, you seem to have taken us right out of Venice. Where are we?"

"Right...here." Laura pointed to a spot on the map that was resting on her knees. "You row in that direction - " she pointed to the left - "for about fifteen minutes, and we'll be back in Venice. Now, luckily for us I took it upon myself to nick some food so we could skip today's trip back to the lodge and spend all day hunting down our targets."

"You sound weirdly enthusiastic," Shelby commented as she rummaged through Laura's bag and pulled out an apple.

"Yeah, well," Laura said, emptying her bag and picking up a sandwich, "the faster we get this done, the more time I have to relax and enjoy what is essentially a holiday in the prettiest part of Italy. Come on, get rowing."

Shelby frowned at Laura's idea that this would be a holiday, but grabbed the oars and began to row. "You realise that nearly every time we've had a trip, we get ambushed? I mean, Overlord and the Furans are dead and all, but there's always some new creature of destruction just waiting to spring out."

"Don't be such a buzzkill. If something shows up, we'll kill it like always, and if not, we've got a week in Venice."

They went on like that for a few minutes until finally some buildings came into view.

"Here we are. Now, I don't know who your Alpha is, but the sun's just up so Franz should be at the lodge any minute to grab as much of the food as he can. Get your stuff together."

Laura crouched down and carefully climbed out of the gondola. "The lodge is this way." She backed up against a wall and began to run. Muttering under her breath, Shelby followed suit.

"So, since Franz is your target, have you come up with a plan?" she whispered.

"Something along the lines of 'tackle him as soon as we spot him and then tag him'," Laura replied.

"Okay, well then you should probably get the tag sticker out," Shelby pointed out, pulling her hood over her head."How Shelby-like do I look?"

"Just don't open your mouth, and nobody will even realise it's you," Laura said as she put the tag sticker on her hand. "Remind me how these work again will you?"

"If you press down on something with that hand, it'll put the mark on it. Your job is to get a mark on his hand through whatever non-lethal means possible," Shelby reminded her. "Okay, we're here, but I don't see Franz anywhere. What next?"

"We wait."

Shelby rolled her eyes. "We aren't waiting in plain view, are we? Good thing I packed a grappler." She pulled the device out of her bag and fired onto the roof of the lodge, then reeled herself up, unfastened the grappler and then threw it down to Laura, who immediately caught it and copied Shelby.

"So, as soon as we see Franz leaving, we flippy jump down Star Wars-style and...what, punch him the face? Stun him?"

"Didn't think that far ahead," Laura said, peering over the edge. "I'd say go with your instincts. D'you reckon he's teamed up with anyone?"

Shelby shook her head. "Won't want to share the food, most likely. Speaking of which, how much food did you even bring?"

"What, are you already hungry? Clearly H.I.V.E.'s been spoiling you. We have enough for two meals, but if you really want to, you can pop down to our room and grab some more."

"Yay, I can show you my new trick!" Shelby did a flip and landed perfectly a metre from the door. "I'll have to thank Raven when we get back," she muttered as she stuck a hairgrip into the lock.

"Wing, the sun's up, and Shelby should be here any minute," Otto nudged his friend.

"Oh, good morning, Otto," Wing said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Alright. Hang on a second -" Otto shushed Wing as they heard the lock click. They dove underneath the bunk and Wing put the sticker on his hand.

"I didn't leave the door like this," they heard Shelby's voice say, and saw a pair of feet entering the room. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

"Here we go," Otto muttered, as the two pulled themselves out. Wing made a grab for Shelby's ankle. Not missing a beat, she jumped up and Wing had to roll over to avoid being landed on.

"Oh damn it, it's you," Shelby said as Wing and Otto stood up "And you? This will be fun. Okay, who's actually my assassin, since they're my first priority?" Neither of them answered, so she grabbed both of their hands. "The big guy, huh? Bring it on."

She jumped again, this time kicking out both legs as she did so. One leg hit Otto in the chest, but Wing dodged his blow. Shelby cursed under her breath - that had been her best move. Thinking fast (but perhaps not entirely straight) she picked up the duvet off of her bunk and threw it over Wing, the few seconds it took to push it off giving her a small advantage. Wing aimed a kick at her, but she ducked and slammed into him. With only one leg on the ground, he lost his balance and toppled over. Winking, she grabbed the hamper full of food and dashed off.

"Well, there goes my brilliant plan," Otto said, disgruntled. "When the hell did she get so good?"

"I would like to think it was down to my teachings," Wing smiled. "But somehow I get the feeling that wasn't it."

"I wish you'd man up and use a sleeper," Otto complained. "That hurt."

"...and then I did a straddle jump, like this." Shelby was demonstrating how she'd taken her opponents down to Laura. "And Otto goes flying, but Mr Ninja Guy dodges, so..."

"Where did you learn that the best way to take people out was a splits-kick?" Laura interrupted.

"I'm taking inspiration from my cheerleading days," Shelby replied cheerfully.

"I thought you were a gymnast."

"I was both!" Shelby said, jumping and punching the air. "H! I! V! E! It's a school for villainy! I am Shelby Trinity! Go Shelby! Go Shelby!" **A/N: Good luck getting that out of your head...**

"Shh, you'll attract attention," Laura said, trying not to laugh at Shelby's antics."As I keep trying to tell you, Franz didn't show up. Either he's doing what Wing and Otto did or he went off in pursuit of more expensive foods."

"Well, Italy is known for having great food, but so is H.I.V.E.," Shelby said thoughtfully. "Since I don't know where all the best restaurants are, let's start with checking the lodge. If he isn't there, we'll at least get some extra food."

"We have enough food as it is," Laura said under her breath as Shelby lead them into the hallway. "Just check all the rooms, I'm sure we'll find something."

"Aye aye, captain." Shelby saluted and stuck hairgrips into two separate doors. "Nobody in either of these two, keep going."

Laura kicked down a door ("So uncivilised," Shelby said with a shake of the head.) "Nope. I guess most people decided that when given an entire city to hide in, there was no point staying in the lodge."

"Well then, we can leap across the rooftops for a little bit - oh wait," Shelby said, turning around. "The boys have recovered. "Laura, give me a hand, will you?"

The next few minutes were a flurry of punches and kicks, with everyone falling over at least twice, but in the end Shelby slipped away and in the brief moment of confusion it caused, so did Laura.

"Phew," Shelby said. "It would've been humiliating to get taken out on day one. Come on, the rooftops await."

The two grappled up a wall and started to run around.

"Laura, one minute, I need to talk to you," Shelby sighed.

"Can it wait?"

"Probably not. Ugh...I am _not_ supposed to be telling you about this, but -"

Just then, a loud beeping sound came from the Blackboxes at the bottom of Shelby's bag:

"All Alphas return to the lodge immediately, we are being attacked."


	9. Chapter 9

"Okay, you were right," Laura said as she sprinted alongside her friend. "Always some new entity wanting to kill off a bunch of Alphas."

"Laura," Shelby panted, "I wasn't making a guess. I knew we were in danger."

Laura stopped.

"What?"

"This is what I was about to say; a Furan assassin codenamed Blade got so attached to the Furans that since they died, she's been planning her revenge. Raven tracked her to Portofino, which is a four-hour drive from here."

"So we had a Raven Junior on our tail and you knew about it and didn't say anything?" Laura shook her head. "You have some explaining to do."

Shelby sighed. "Three weeks ago I hunted Raven down because...ugh...after H.I.V.E., that's what I want to do. Nero told her about this at the start of term and she wasn't meant to tell anybody, but she told me and she's been training me. When we had a party last week, I didn't disappear on you because I didn't want to get caught - I had to tell Raven about what you found - somebody poking about our records, someone we didn't know."

Laura put her head in her hands. "Is that what you were up to every time you hit the 'library'?"

Shelby nodded.

"So you put up with us laughing at you to keep it a secret? It's definitely important."

Another nod.

Laura sighed. "Why is it always us?"

Shelby made a noise of agreement, then started to run again.

'

* * *

'

"Everyone," Ms Leon said to the group of worried-looking students. "It is unfortunate that this has happened, but we are fully aware of the situation -"

"We aren't," Otto cut in.

"As I was saying, this was not unexpected and as long as nobody is foolishly irresponsible, you shouldn't get hurt. We are under attack from an assassin codenamed Blade, the Furans' successor."

"Where is she?" A girl said - Shelby recognised her as Sophie, her designated target.

"At the moment, her exact location in the city is unknown to us, but all of our Shrouds are set to explode in fifteen minutes."

"WHAT?" "But they're right there!" Voices protested.

"Everyone stay calm," Ms Leon tried to say, but she was barely heard amidst the yells.

"Ms Leon," Laura said quietly, "Do you think I could access a computer? I might be able to buy us some time."

"Anything," Ms Leon said, looking as worried as a cat could. She led Laura to the staff room, where Laura sat down in front of the computer and -

"Oh no," she muttered. The screen was completely black except for seven words:

 **COMPUTERS CAN BE RIGGED TO EXPLODE TOO.**

"Miss Brand?" Ms Leon said, panicking.

"Hold on," Laura bit her lip and began to type. "Damn it, damn it, damn it. Ms Leon, tell everyone to chuck their Blackboxes in a bomb shelter or something. There's a ten-minute timer before they explode. I can try to delay it, but I'd need a good hour to stop it competely. Get me Otto, now."

"Already here," Otto said,walking over to the computer. "Oh God, that's bad. Laura, try and add a few minutes to the timer, I'll try to stop it." Otto close his eyes and in his mind he hunted down the code telling the computers to explode, as Laura did the same thing on the screen.

"I've frozen the countdown, but that's only going to last until she - Blade - spots it and fixes it," Laura said, her fingers a blur as they flew across the keyboard. "I can probably put a few bugs in the code, but since Blade's evidently good enough with computers that she can rig ten Shrouds and about a hundred Blackboxes to blow up without even being near them, I can't buy us more than fifteen minutes before she boots me out of the system altogether."

"Do you think there's some way to move the explosives somewhere else?" Otto said, eyes still shut. "Like, the ocean or something?"

"Hold up," Laura said excitedly. "I found her! Whatever computer she's using, it's within a half-mile radius of this place. Her IP is . Ring any bells?"

There was silence.

"What can I do?" Raven suddenly appeared. "I think we were too far away for her to disable the Shrouds at the island. I just got here."

"You can search for a computer within half a mile of here with a vengeful assassin sitting at it," Laura said anxiously. "And get all the Shrouds away from the Alphas, and all the Blackboxes."

"Sounds easy," Raven said with a grim smile. "Where are Wing and Shelby?"

"Present," Shelby replied. "I've filled Wing in on the situation. So, find Blade and chuck all the Blackboxes into the canal. Seems pretty straightforward."

 **DOES IT?**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shelby asked as she read the new message appearing on the screen.

"Bluff. Nothing's changed in the code, the countdown's the same, and she has to either run, leaving her exploding code behind, or stay, meaning we still know her location."

"But it means she can hear what we're saying," Shelby pointed out. "The room, or the computer, it's bugged."

Laura looked half annoyed, half impressed. "How didn't I think of that? Someone check the room for a microphone or camera. Otto, any progress?"

"One second, one second...okay, I've put ten minutes on the timer," Otto said hurriedly. "And she shouldn't be able to change that. But you said a bug..." he drifted off again. "There's nothing here. No microphones or cameras or whatever."

"That means she can hear us." Wing looked worried. "Shelby, Raven, we need to scout around. Laura and Otto can keep delaying the timer." Everyone nodded and followed their directions.

"By any chance you don't have a spare katana or two?" Shelby asked Raven as they went outside. "Just since we were only allowed non-lethal weapons."

"Taking her name into account, I think it might be better to remain at a distance," Wing pointed out. "We brought Sleepers, and Blade may be more valuable to us alive."

"Fair enough." Shelby pulled a Sleeper out of her backpack, looking slightly disappointed. "She's close enough that she can hear what goes on in the staff room, so...try the roof." Shelby rummaged through her bag and handed a grappler to Raven. "I only brought one, so if you wouldn't mind going first..."

Raven rolled her eyes and took two more grapplers out of her pack.

"Here we go," Shelby muttered, firing the device upwards at the same time as the others. They all shot upwards and Raven got up first, pulling the two up. Shelby quickly disabled the safety and cocked the gun, and slightly reluctantly, Wing followed suit.

"Put the guns down."

Shelby felt a knife against the back of her neck.

"Don't turn around, Wing," she warned. "Or Raven. Whichever one of you has a knife behind you."

"That's me," Wing said.

"Then...hey Raven, can you do that thing you do?"

"This thing?" Raven unsheathed her katanas and switched them on. "Both of you, it might be a good idea to step away a bit."

Obeying, Shelby and Wing turned around to face the tall, imposing figure dressed in a black ninja suit that revealed only the woman's narrow grey eyes.

"Turn off the countdown," Raven said with ice in her voice.

Blade shook her head.

"Let me put this another way." Raven put the tip of her katana under Blade's chin. "If you want to see the sun go down tonight, switch off the explosives."

"No need!" Laura's voice yelled upwards triumphantly. "We'll be up in a second."

"I don't care what she says," Raven said, not moving her sword. "If you don't disable that countdown and delete the program now, then I'll show you exactly what you're up against."

"Hi there," Otto said, with Laura behind him. "If she won't delete the program, I will." He moved towards the computer sitting on the slates.

In a flash Blade had moved to stand next to the slim PC, her knives pointed towards the party. They were double-bladed and the edges seemed to be glowing with blue electricity.

"Don't touch the computer," she said calmly. "Drop your weapons."

"The knives may be flashy and all, but there are five of us and believe us when we say we're a force to be reckoned with," Laura said, matching the woman's even tone. Otto kept his Sleeper pointed towards their target, but his eyes were shut and his mind seemed to have wandered off.

"Flashy? Would you like to find out just how flashy these are?" The woman sneered, pointing towards Raven. "You. I've been trained in the same way you have, but for longer. What do you think? Could I take down the five of you?"

Before Raven could answer, a soft sound came from the computer and the program disappeared from the screen. Otto smirked.

"We've won this time," Raven said, stepping forwards. "I don't think you'll be much use to us alive."

"That's where you're wrong." Blade scooped up the computer and ran off the rooftop, landing neatly on the Shroud. "We'll meet again if I have anything to do with it." She entered the vehicle and within seconds it started to lift.

"Not happening!" Shelby copied the motion, and landed with only a slight wobble atop the Shroud. "Guys, quick! Don't leave me alone with Raven Junior!"

Raven handed grapplers to the three others. The Shroud was getting higher. Shelby sat by the edge and pulled Laura up as she fired her grappler.

"Thanks," Laura yelled. "Wait - WING! You won't make it!"

Otto and Raven were hanging from the edge of the Shroud, but Wing's grappler seemed like it would miss just by inches.

"This is gonna - OW! Hurt," Shelby reached out and the tip of the grappler sank into her hand. With the other hand she grabbed the cord, and hauled Wing up, breathing heavily.

"Are you alright?" Wing said, hugging Shelby as Laura pulled up Otto and Raven.

"Yeah, I'm great. Just a hook in my hand - I've fallen from a Shroud and landed on a tree. I'll manage."

"Well, I don't know about trees, but it looks like we're about to be falling!" Laura shouted. They were being thrown about the roof of the Shroud as its pilot swerved violently, trying to shake them off.

"Raven! Your katanas!" Shelby screamed. Raven nodded, and stuck the blade of her katana into the Shroud, moving it until she'd cut a large circle into the ceiling.

"On three, one, two, three!" The group dropped into the Shroud. Holding out their weapons, everyone looked around -

"She's gone," Otto whispered. "But - the Shroud -"

"Is falling," Raven said urgently, running over to the control deck. "Everyone, to the exit! When you see a building come in sight, fire your grapplers. I'm going to try and fly this thing, but just in case - yep. She's disabled the control deck. How she does it so fast, I don't understand. JUMP!"

Shelby leapt out of the falling Shroud, and once again fired her grappler onto a large building. As the others followed suit, she pulled herself in carefully, holding her hands out to prevent smacking into the wall, and immediately scrambled upwards, leaving space for her friends to do the same.

"Made it," Laura said, desperately trying to pull herself up. Raven extended her arm and Laura gratefully used it as a ledge before dragging herself onto the rooftop.

"Us too," Wing said, pushing himself up unaided. Otto was right behind him.

"What just happened?" Otto said, sitting down on the slates.

"Why you want to do this for a living all of a sudden, Shel, I'll never know," Laura agreed.

"Wait, what? Shelby - okay, someone explain."

"Gladly," Raven said. "At the beginning of term, Doctor Nero informed me of a new threat, a Furan assassin codenamed Blade who got so attached to the Furans that she's spent the last two years planning her revenge."

"How could someone get attached to-"

"As someone who spent six years being trained in the Glasshouse, Mr Malpense, believe me when I say that they can completely change your concept of morals, choice, or more or less anything to do with independence. A few weeks ago, Shelby came to be, wanting to be trained to do what I do, and as I already had wanted to inform you four of the situation, given how you were almost entirely responsible for their downfall, I told her about Blade and have been training her since. After she told me that Laura had found an anonymous user looking through your archives, I looked about myself and found her in the system. That was two nights ago. I was planning to tell you about it, but Nero asked me to wait until you came back."

"Oh jeez," Otto muttered.

"Indeed."

"So now what do we do?" Laura said. "I mean, we killed the explosive program, but she still has her computer. Considering she still wanted to protect it after we'd gotten rid of her program, I think she may have another plan up her sleeve. Or more accurately, her computer."

"I doubt someone as highly trained as Blade would attack without a plan B," Wing agreed.

"And a plan C, and a plan D," Shelby nodded.

"We're safe for now," Raven frowned, "But there's no doubt she'll be back soon. In the mean time, I think all of you should cram for your Tactical Education exams."

"Do we not get assassin training too?" Otto asked.

"Is that the career path you plan to take? I must say, it's not what I had in mind for you."

"Fair enough. Let's get back to the lodge now, I'm sure everyone's worried about us."

'

* * *

'

"Oh good, you are all being fine," Franz said cheerfully.

"Group hug!" Shelby winked at Laura, who quickly pushed her hand against Franz's as Shelby pulled everyone in, leaving a faded black T.

"I win!" Laura said happily. "Sorry, Franz. Even when we're being attacked with exploding Shrouds, an assignment is an assignment."

"I see that I have been tricked," Franz said, looking annoyed.

"Is Max here?" Raven asked quietly as she and Ms Leon watched the friends laughing together.

"I just told him everything. He's on his way with more Shrouds."

Raven sighed. "All right. The one I came here on still works, should I start bringing people back?"

"Take those four first." Ms Leon pointed a paw towards Otto, Shelby, Wing and Laura. "And Mr Darkdoom and Mr Argentblum. I want to keep them out of trouble."

"On it." Raven strolled over to the group. "The six of you, we're going back to H.I.V.E. now. Follow me."

'

* * *

'

"So," Nero said quietly as Raven closed his office door. "They know now, I assume."

"Yes," Raven replied. For the time being, she was planning to keep her arrangement with Shelby a secret.

Nero sighed. "What are we going to do?"

"Max, they've faced worse. We have the advantage here - there are more of us, they have more experience than they did when facing the Furans, and I know how she's been trained. We can't lose."

"I know we'll win," Nero agreed, "There's no doubt that we'll win - the question is at what price. In a funny way, we're a lot more vulnerable than Blade because we have so much more to lose."

"If we talk like that, we _will_ lose. We are stronger than she is. We will not let her take any lives."

He smiled. "Oh Natalya, what would I do without you?"

 **A/N: In honor of Good Friday, I'm releasing early (for those of you who don't know, I typically release a chapter for Graduation every Sunday.)  
I wanted to thank everyone for the feedback I've been getting on this story and my other story - you have no idea how happy it makes me to get all of these amazing, positive comments. You're all amazing, and I know you're amazing because you like the H.I.V.E. series;). Happy Easter!**


	10. Chapter 10

"So, any updates on our vengeful psycho assassin?" Shelby asked as she swung the sword through the air to meet Raven's.

"You know that talking and fighting at the same time is rather difficult," Raven reminded her student, poking Shelby in the ribs with her katana.

"You don't seem to be having an issue with it." Dodging a blow, Shelby feinted to the left and brought her sword to where Raven's arm was. She parried the blow with no apparent effort.

"I'm the expert. Anyway, in answer to your question, we have no current knowledge of her whereabouts, or anything about her next plan. Rest assured you'll find out for yourself pretty soon."

Shelby advanced, swinging her sword carefully. "Okay then, since you're the expert, do you know what those knives of hers were?"

"Stun knives. There's a taser in the blade, effectively making it both a blade and a tranquiliser. They're double-bladed, too, so very dangerous."

"No kidding." Twirling her sword around to keep Raven's blade out, Shelby moved forward and then lunged.

"You know, you're not actually that bad at this," Raven said, despite the obvious ease with which she had dodged the sword.

"I guess maybe in comparison to non-Ravens. But if I'm up against two double-blades, will a single sword be enough? This is my sixth year here, remember, even if the assassin classes have only been for a few weeks."

"Your sword won't be the only one fighting," Raven pointed out. "Tell you what, once we've gotten rid of Blade, we can find you a proper weapon - as many blades as you like." Shelby grinned in anticipation and in her excitement her sword met its target without even meaning to.

"Be that excited more often," Raven said, smiling as she took her katana back from Shelby and strapped them both to her back. "See you next week."

'

* * *

'

"Mini Raven's at it again," Laura groaned as Shelby appeared out of nowhere in front of her and whipped out her Blackbox, opening her homework.

"Can that please not be my new name?" Shelby complained. "You look cheerful. Who died?"

"HIVEmind let me into the outside internet and I just saw the new Star Wars movie, so I could tell you who died if you want..."

"Please don't," Otto said quickly. He was sitting on the bed next to Laura, tapping away at the essay on his screen. "I haven't seen it either."

"Since when are you a Star Wars fan?" Shelby said with her eyebrows raised. Laura winked. "Oh, of course. Of course. Thanks, Laura."

"What? All I did was mention how life is not truly meant for living before you've watched Star Wars."

"Fifty times," Otto teased.

"Okay, okay," Shelby interrupted. "Why don't we talk about Karate Kid, or District 13? You know that it was directed by the creator of parkour himself?"

"Don't even know who that is," Laura said. "Anyway, does anybody know where Wing is?"

"I think it's his weekly ass-kicking session," Shelby said.

"Right, of course. Lord save us from the Raven apprentices."

"Hey! At least I'm thinking about what I'm going to do after this year. What do the two of you have planned out?"

"I told you, I'm going to be a hacker."

"But that's so _vague_ ," Shelby moaned. "Hack for H.I.V.E.? Just hack-steal a few million bucks and then retire? Or, God forbid, hack for the _government_?"

"Well, who are you going to assassinate for?"

"Shut up, you two," Otto said half-heartedly, not wanting to be asked his plans. He did have an idea, but the others would just laugh.

"Yes, shut up, you two," Wing said.

"There you are!" Shelby exclaimed happily. "Over here, neither of these two know the first thing about martial arts and this essay is worth half my grade."

"And there I was thinking you were happy to see me." Wing looked offended.

"That too," Shelby said. "Aw, come on, you know I love you. Just at the moment I especially love your knowledge of martial arts."

Wing smiled ever so slightly. "I suppose that's alright then. What's the question?"

'

* * *

'

"You know, all joking aside," Shelby said, flopping down on her bunk, "don't you ever think about what it'll be like once we get out of here?"

"Of course I do," Laura replied. "But no matter how long I spend thinking about it, it's gonna be super weird. So I try not to spend too long brooding, you know?"

"I guess so," Shelby said slowly. "But it's debatable whether I'm ever actually leaving..."

"What, because of the Raven classes? She gets to leave a great deal, though, doesn't she?"

Shelby nodded. "You don't think you're going to stay here, then? Pike probably only has a few more years left, and who better to replace him than you?"

"Nah, I'm a rubbish teacher, I-"

"Taught _me_ how to hack a Blackbox," Shelby interrupted. "If you don't want to, don't, but it would be pretty nice to have you around to keep me sane."

"What about Wing, then? Is this all too immoral for him?"

"It's kind of hard to tell what he's planning to do," Shelby answered. "But I'm kind of assuming he'll be staying away from the whole villainy thing if he can help it."

"But that would mean staying away from you, and we can all tell that he doesn't plan on doing that anytime soon," Laura grinned. "He'll most likely...I dunno, probably teach, or guard, or something."

"But the school's pretty closely linked with G.L.O.V.E. and considering they're kind of responsible for the death of both his parents..." Shelby trailed off. She looked a bit apprehensive.

"Look, whatever happens, Wing will make time for you, you know that," Laura said, nearly smiling. "This is a very unusual situation, isn't it?"

"Huh. Usually I'm the comforter and you're the comforted, yes," Shelby replied. "But let's say for a moment I take over Raven's spot once she gets tired of it, I'll be away on a killing spree all the time, and every time there's a chance I won't come back. I don't know if he'd be able to handle that."

"Shelby Trinity," Laura said firmly. "You'll come back every single time, in one piece, with Wing waiting, because he knows you'll make it. He's not going to get fed up of waiting - the four of us have spent the last six years waiting for each other to come back alive, and _we always have._ Besides, Raven's probably not even forty yet. You have a good few years with before you even need to worry about that."

Shelby smiled grudgingly. "I'm really going to miss you."

"Who said I was going anywhere?"

'

* * *

'

 **Shelby Trinity**

 **Appearance: Blonde hair, blue eyes, tall, slim.**

 **D.O.B.: 17th April, 1991 in Los Angeles, California.**

 **Stream: Alpha.**

 **History: Stole $15m worth of jewels under the alias 'the Wraith'. Taken during a heist on Tiffany & Co HQ.**

 **Skills: Stealth, lockpicking, theft, combat, physical endurance.**

 **Weaknesses: Technology, finance.**

 **Blackbox IP: 179.652**

 **Laura Brand**

 **Appearance: Red hair, green eyes, average height, slim.**

 **D.O.B.: 8th July, 1991 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.**

 **Stream: Alpha.**

 **History: Sent to H.I.V.E. after hacking an American Air Force base to eavesdrop on a phone call.**

 **Skills: Technology, particularly hacking.**

 **Weaknesses: Stealth, physical endurance, finance.**

 **Blackbox IP: 238.169**

 **Otto Malpense**

 **Appearance: White hair, blue eyes, short, slim.**

 **D.O.B.: Brought to an orphanage 29th August, 1991 in London. Real birthdate unknown.**

 **Stream: Alpha.**

 **History: Sent to H.I.V.E. after creating a mind control device and using on the then Prime Minister.**

 **Skills: Technology, but also demonstrates an aptitude for most other aspects of villainy.**

 **Weaknesses: Finance.**

 **Blackbox IP: 813.772**

 **Wing Fanchu**

 **Appearance: Black hair, brown eyes, tall, muscular.**

 **D.O.B.: 3rd November, 1991 in Tokyo, Japan.**

 **Stream: Alpha.**

 **History: Sent to H.I.V.E. for his skills in martial arts and self defence.**

 **Skills: Stealth, comabt, physical endurance.**

 **Weaknesses: Finance, technology.**

 **Blackbox IP: 317. 549**

 **Nigel Darkdoom**

 **Appearance: Bald, brown eyes, average height.**

 **D.O.B.: 18th January 1991 in Oxfordshire, England**

 **Stream: Alpha.**

 **History: Sent to H.I.V.E. because of his father, Diabolus Darkdoom.**

 **Skills: Biotechnology.**

 **Weaknesses: Combat, technology.**

 **Blackbox IP: 967.134**

 **Franz Argentblum**

 **Appearance: Blond hair, short, overweight.**

 **D.O.B.: 29th March, 1991 in Berlin, Germany.**

 **Stream: Alpha.**

 **History: Sent to H.I.V.E. because of his father, Heinrich Argentblum.**

 **Skills: Finance, firearms.**

 **Weaknesses: Combat, physical endurance, technology.**

 **Blackbox IP: 754.282**

 **Import _BLADE__ to 179.652?**

 **Importing...imported.**

 **Import _BLADE__ to 238.169?**

 **Importing...imported.**

 **Import _BLADE__ to 813.772?**

 **Importing...imported.**

 **Import _BLADE__ to 317.549?**

 **Importing...imported.**

 **Import _BLADE__ to 967.134?**

 **Importing...imported.**

 **Import _BLADE__ to 754.282?**

 **Importing...imported.**


	11. Chapter 11

"Guess what's finally happening!" Laura said, sitting down beside Shelby and grabbing herself breakfast.

"Yep, I know. The codefest you've been waiting for for nearly four months," Shelby answered with a bored expression. "Where we get to sit and hack each other for half the week. Yay..."

"This'll be good for you," Laura insisted. "You have exams to pass if you still want to have that dance of yours."

"Not to mention," Otto added. "Knowing how to hack can actually be _useful_ , can you believe it?"

"Be that as it may," Shelby said, "It's gonna be _so_ boring."

"I have total respect for those who enjoy technology and hacking," Wing agreed, "but I simply cannot understand how they can find it fun."

"There's our Mr Ninja Guy," Shelby smiled. "Tell you what, we're allowed to pair up, aren't we? I'll go with the big guy, and we can find a way to make hacking fun. Sound good?"

"Do you even know what we're actually doing this week?" Laura asked.

"Hacking," Shelby replied.

"Hacking what?" Shelby looked at her blankly. "Fine...remember when we were in Venice and I said I'd get excited when we got a digital equivalent of that assassin mission?"

"So we're hack-assassinating each other?" Shelby said thoughtfully. "Hack-assassinating...hassassinating! We're hassassins!"

"Well, you aren't just yet," Otto grinned. "Each person, pair or team has to try and overwrite a Blackbox to flash with their names for a few seconds, and then they've scored. You override the most Blackboxes, you score the most points and you win."

"Win what?"

"Just win."

"Hmmph. So what happens once you've been overwritten?"

"You keep going, but whoever overwrote you scores."

Shelby considered that. "This will be interesting."

'

* * *

'

"So, obviously we need to start with Shelby and Wing's Blackboxes," Laura said, clicking at the screen. "Please don't cheat. Sorry, sorry - " she saw Otto's expression - "'using your abilities isn't cheating', I forgot. Well, don't do it anyway."

"Okay, okay, start with Wing's Blackbox." The two sat at their screens for a few minutes, clicking until a window full of code opened up.

"Okay, I'm on." Laura scanned through the code until -

"Otto, you have to see this," Laura said quietly.

"What is that?" Otto frowned, looking at the lines of code loading in front of him.

"It's not Blackbox code, that's for sure." Pressing key after key, Laura desperately tried to find the source of the new code. "I can't locate it. Otto, I can't believe I'm already saying this...could you cheat quickly?"

"It's still not cheating." Otto closed his eyes and hunted down the code. "That's not good."

"What? What is it?" Laura said worriedly. In response, Otto leaned over her screen and opened a window.

"BLADE_," Laura whispered. "Imported to 179.652, 754.282...Otto, those are our Blackboxes."

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Otto muttered. "I'll go get Professor Pike."

"Hurry."

Otto ran to Pike's office and knocked hurriedly.

"Otto?" Professor Pike looked startled. "Don't you have somewhere to be? I wouldn't expect this to be a class you'd want to miss."

"It isn't, Professor, but this is urgent. We found something that isn't Blackbox code, and it doesn't look good."

"Oh dear," Pike replied nervously. "I guess you had better show me."

Otto led him back to the classroom and gestured to the screen.

"Oh, that's bad. Both of you, well done on finding this. Could you go and fetch Doctor Nero?" Laura darted out of the classroom while Pike rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked at the code more closely.

"So this is on all the Blackboxes, is it?"

"Mine, Laura's, Shelby's, Wing's, Nigel's and Franz's," Otto told him.

"Bad, bad, bad," the professor muttered.

"Miss Brand informs me we have another code invasion," Nero said quietly, striding into the room. "I'm afraid that this code doesn't mean much to me, but if the three of you say it's bad, it probably is. Can you delete it?"

"That's the worrying thing," Laura said. "When I try to delete it, it shows up somewhere else and I've only ever seen that happen once before."

"Oh God, please not again," Nero sighed. "Remind me, how did we get rid of it last time?"

"I don't think BLADE_ comes with a protocol, Doctor," Laura said.

"So what do we do?"

"At the moment, I'm just trying to figure out what it does, to be honest," she replied honestly. "It's running just fine, but it's encrypted so only the computer can read it. Maybe HIVEmind can help, but it'll take him a good while."

"How about me?" Otto said indignantly.

Laura nearly rolled her eyes. "Does your computer voodoo extend to cryptography now too?"

"Have this conversation later," Nero reminded them. "Keep working on the code, but first ask Mr Fanchu and Miss Trinity to see how their Blackboxes are functioning.

"Got it." Laura went off to find Wing and Shelby.

"There you are!" Laura exclaimed.

"Oh, hi, Laura," Shelby said. "You know, it's great that you showed up because we're really needing a hand. You wouldn't mind overwriting your Blackbox for us, would you?"

"We got a bigger problem at the moment, Shelby," Laura told her, pointing at BLADE_. "What does this look like to you?"

"Greek?"

Laura sighed. "That right there is BLADE_, an intelligent piece of code placed inside the six of us' Blackboxes."

"Intelligent?" Shelby frowned. "Is that like Overlord intelligent or just really cleverly designed?"

"Take a guess. Otto, Pike and I are trying to get rid of it, but in the meantime, the two of you need to check your Blackboxes to see what this code actually does. Check everything, even the things which were working this morning. "

"On it." Shelby turned to Wing. "When the Blade becomes digital, I stop enjoying the death-defying situations. Come on."

"I'm not really a fan of death-defying situations either way," Wing said.

"Really? Five and a half years and you're already bored? What do you plan to do after H.I.V.E. then?" Shelby asked as she pulled her Blackbox out of her pocket and flipped it open. "Lead a quiet life?"

"That is a difficult question," Wing replied, tapping at the PDA screen. "As attached as I may have become to this place, a quiet life does sound very nice indeed."

"Well, that makes things pretty complicated," Shelby said, swallowing her resentment. "Hang on, my messaging and calls don't work. Laura!" She dashed back to where her friend sat.

"Brand, I can't make calls and I can't message," Shelby told her quickly. "And I'm guessing here, but I think that soon it'll be more than that."

"You're not wrong. We haven't managed to decrypt the code, but we've found seven timers and one has expired. The next ends in four hours."

"Since it's only the second one, I presume it's still safe to carry them about?" Shelby said worriedly. "Just so, you know, I can live to go to the dance and all."

"Not the time, Shel," Laura said, frantically typing away. "Each timer is set twenty-four hours after the previous one, meaning we don't even have a week to take BLADE_ out of the system. Is HIVEmind still working?"

Shelby pressed a button. "Thumbs up. Hey, HIVEmind, I think we need a hand."

"I have no hands, but I can still try to help with anything," HIVEmind said from SHelby's Blackbox.

"Good," Laura said. "HIVEmind, there's some code in my Blackbox system that shouldn't be there. We need you to decrypt it and send the decrypted message to this computer as fast as you possibly can."

"Decryption process has commenced."

"Right," Laura sighed, leaning backwards with exhaustion and frustration. "Thanks, Blue."

"Miss Brand and Mr Malpense, you are both excused from today's lessons until the safety of the students has been ensured. Miss Trinity and Mr Fanchu, unless you think you can be of any use, please return to class. You will be notified if anything concerning you happens. Also, please try and not touch BLADE_ while hacking."

"I'll be lucky if I can even find it," Shelby assured Nero, grabbing Wing's arm and pulling him back to the computers.

'

* * *

'

"You called?" Shelby said, rushing up to where Laura and Otto sat, looking tired and annoyed. Behind them were Doctor Nero and Professor Pike.

"Well," Laura began, "there's good news, bad news and really bad news."

"If we could start with the good news," Wing prompted her.

"Right. HIVEmind and Otto decrypted BLADE_, so we know exactly what the code does now - that's the good news. The bad news is that in three hours, the GPS already on the system starts getting sent directly to a program called SOURCE, which we're guessing is running on her laptop. Twenty-four hours later, it starts streaming everything the Blackbox can see and hear, again to SOURCE. The day after -"

"We get the picture," Shelby interrupted her, looking rather apprehensive. "So what's worse than getting tracked and disabled by this mad woman?"

"There's nothing we can do to stop it," Otto told them.

Wing raised his eyebrows. "So why do we not just replace the Blackboxes with new ones not infected with BLADE_?"

"Because the program is intelligent," Otto said grimly. "It's a digital ninja; it's been told to get into our Blackboxes, and we can keep changing that location but it finds them and gets in."

"So we go without," Shelby said, almost annoyed at how obvious it was. "Unless BLADE_ has Animus capabilities, it can't actually do much if we're away from the Blackboxes."

"There's a reason that she disabled the messaging, though," Otto pointed out. "All the Alphas are in danger, but us in particular. If we can't contact Nero and the others-"

"We stay with them!" Shelby exclaimed. "We're harder to take out, we can contact them - am I the only one whose brain can think tactically?"

"I hope not," Wing said.

"It will be somewhat inconvenient if we have to constantly accompany you everywhere," Nero explained.

"Could BLADE_ get into a walkie-talkie?" Wing suggested. "Blackboxes can't be the only form of long-distance communication available to us."

" _Thank_ you," Shelby said. "Finally someone who uses his brain for non-computery purposes."

"It goes without saying that old-fashioned methods are often the best," Laura agreed("You just did say it" Shelby muttered. Laura pointedly ignored her.)

"I don't like it," Pike said. "It seems too easy."

"You gotta understand, even the most super-mega brains can overlook the dumb obvious," Shelby grinned. "All the same, I doubt BLADE_ is her only trick, especially since she's trained as an actual assassin and not a computerized one."

"Still, she has to run out of moves eventually," Otto said. "We need to make sure we don't give her enough time to come up with anything new, though."

"So, we give in our Blackboxes, replace them with walkie-talkies, and we can rest assured that we will wake up in the morning?" Wing asked, seemingly quite eager to finish the conversation.

"This is H.I.V.E., Mr Fanchu, so that is never a guarantee," Nero told him, "However, for tonight I can say that your risk of not waking up is the same as any other student here."

"Thank God," Shelby sighed. "Well, until next time, it's goodbye from all us here at H.I.V.E. - good night."


	12. Chapter 12

"Shelby to Laura, over," Shelby said, rolling her eyes. "Do we have homework?"

"Shel, I love that you're taking the situation seriously for a change - sort of - but I'm right here," Laura sighed. "Ask Otto, he'll remember."

"Well, you're cheerful," Shelby muttered, flopping down on her bed. "In case you hadn't noticed, nobody's tried to kill or hack us for almost two weeks. I think that's a new record."

"No, actually, it isn't," Laura replied. She switched on her comlink. "Otto, do we have homework?"

"You still have a laptop, you realise," Otto's voice came from the device.

"Answer the question!" Shelby yelled into the microphone. "This cell is kind of lacking in the technology department at the moment - Laura's been putting safety restraints on the computers for a week now."

"It's taking you that long? Disappointing. We have a Tactical Education test on Thursday and that's it for now. If you need a hand with the restraints…"

"Yeah, yeah, not happening." Laura turned off the connection. "Come on, I need you to help me cram for Thursday."

"Yay! Let's go. Do you have any idea what we're doing in the test?"

"As in, have I been hacking the test rubric? No, but considering the extensive amount of sword combat we've been doing over the last fortnight, I would guess that's what we're doing."

"Fair enough. You might want to ask Wing to help with that - you've never really liked my teacher commentary."

"Well then, we can both work on something today."

Shelby groaned. "Whatever."

'

* * *

'

"So has Raven given you any updates?" Laura asked, swinging her sword about absent-mindedly.

"Doesn't appear to be much to give. Ever since Blackbox Attack 2.0, she seems to be out of moves. For now, at least." Shelby grinned as she stabbed Laura with her sword.

"I suppose you can't really use the same attack three times - hey, watch it!" Laura made a face as she lifted her sword to block Shelby's.

"I'm assuming you know that I'm actually supposed to do that? Try and pay attention when you're fighting, tends to make things a bit easier."

"Huh. So what am I supposed to do?"

"Well, for starters, not this," Shelby said as she poked Laura again. "In fact, try the exact opposite of that. Maybe cut my arm off or something."

"How?" Laura replied, raising her eyebrows.

"Use the Force, Laura. Let the sword's energy flow through you. And for God's sake, when you see my sword is this close to 'killing' you, block it." Hastily, Laura brought her sword up.

"Can't wait to be the one teaching you again - oh, I win, I win!"

"If you let your guard down every time you chop a hand off, you're in trouble - ugh, you know what? We're not getting anywhere. Let's go annoy the boys a bit."

"Much better." Laura put her sword away and ran after Shelby.

"Hi, boys!" Shelby said loudly, barging into the room. "I've been trying to help Laura revise for the test on Thursday, but she's kind of hopeless, so we thought we'd come and pester the two of you."

"I suppose you ought to appreciate Raven a bit more," Otto said cheerfully, "Now that you know what it's like for her every Tuesday."

"What are you talking about?" Shelby said indignantly. "I'm a _brilliant_ student. Anyway, are you guys set for the test?"

"Wing is, that's for sure," Otto said.

"I am no more prepared than usual," Wing said, confused.

"That's to say he can't imagine why he should revise for a subject he's already so brilliant at," Shelby grinned. "How are you, big guy?"

"I'm exactly how I was when you saw me at dinnertime," Wing replied. "You?"

"A bit bored, to be honest," Shelby admitted. "Nearly two weeks with only a little practical sword combat test to keep me occupied."

"Well, I for one am enjoying the boredom," Wing said.

"Definitely you for one," Otto cut in. "Blade's attacked twice, using more or less the exact same move. I'm waiting for some action."

"For once, I'm actually with the boredom-haters," Laura agreed. "More out of wanting to now what the hell she's planning next than wanting to actually face it, but same principle."

"Eh, I'm sure we won't be waiting long," Shelby said. "Anybody want to hedge bets on just how long? I'm going with the test on Thursday. It'll be poetic - the practical exam becoming just that bit too practical..."

"Not my kind of poetry," Laura smiled. "She's kind of run out of hack-attacks to do, so...probably something like that. Do us a favour, and make sure your teacher tonight is actually Raven."

"I'm kind of offended that you actually think I won't be able to tell the difference between two psycho ninja assassins in masks," Shelby said in mock hurt. "It's an easy distinction."

"She could have a mask," Wing pointed out.

"And a voice-changing thingy from Mission:Impossible? How rich are we assuming she is?"

"There are other ways to alter your voice," Otto said in a perfect impression of Wing's voice.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Laura asked, looking incredulous.

"HIVEmind," Otto told her. "You see..."

"Please no, any explanation as to how an AI gave you accent training is guaranteed to give the non-geeks a migraine," Shelby said quickly. "So, how much are we betting here?"

"Oh, I'll bet all of that money I have saved up from spending five years inside a volcano," Laura said sarcastically. "Nobody ever actually bets after saying 'let's bet'."

"Well, we're a team of ground-breakers and revolutionaries, so let's say that if someone guesses it right, they can decide what our senior-year prank can be. If nobody guesses, we all have to agree together."

"Sounds fair enough," Otto agreed. "I'll go with next Monday in between classes."

"Saturday morning," Laura said.

"The Tactical Education test," Shelby bet.

They all looked at Wing.

"Bets are pointless and ridiculous and I see no reason to get involved," Wing decided.

"Your loss," Shelby said. "Until Thursday, then."

'

* * *

'

"...and in the unlikely situation that any of you actually manages to properly disable your opponent, then full marks will be granted immediately," Francisco said, clearly expecting that this would not happen. "I am not expecting that even the best among you will manage this feat, so I hope you all like disappointment."

"He's forgetting that we've trained under none other than Raven herself," Shelby grinned. "Good luck, big guy. Not that you'll need it."

"Same to you," Wing said.

"All right, everyone take a sword!" The Colonel yelled. "No armour today, the swords are blunt and you aren't supposed to get hit anyway."

Their opponents - H.I.V.E.'s best trained soldiers - lined up on one side of the cavern.

"The first half, get ready, the second half, see if you can learn anything at all. GO!"

Half of the students moved away, and the remaining students - including Laura, Shelby, Wing and Otto - all got ready to attack.

Laura gritted her teeth - she wished now she'd been a bit more attentive when Shelby tried to teach her. _I wonder if using the_ _Force actually works for swordfighting..._ it was worth a try, anyway. She didn't really have any better ideas, so she tried to just look carefully at where her opponent was moving his sword, and blocked. Still focused on where the sword was going, she noticed an unprotected spot and lunged. Perfect.

Otto was using a similar approach - he could calculate precisely exactly where the sword would be every second, and predict the soldier's next move, making defense easy and attacks easier. He hit his target again and again, but it still wasn't enough to disable him altogether. Still, it could be worse.

Wing was having no trouble - by now, the sword was practically an extension of his arm and did exactly what he wanted it to. Getting the other sword to do what he wanted it to - that was harder, but not impossible. He could tell that his soldier was getting tired, and wondered whether it was against the rules to trip him up and be done with it.

Of course, Shelby was having the time of her life - she was winning simply because of how much more energy she had than her adversary, and hadn't been hit once. She was twirling her sword around, planning her next move, when the lights plunged out and everything went black.

"I win!" she muttered. "Colonel Franciso, what's going on? Hey, a blackout means pause the battle!"

"It appears we are experiencing a blackout," Franciso yelled.

"Duh," Laura said. "Shelby, where are you? I'm about ninety percent sure that this means you win. It could actually just be a blackout, or Franciso wants to make it harder."

"But the battle has not yet finished, so keep going until I say so!"

"Could be both," Shelby whispered back to Laura. "Okay, looks like we're still fighting. Bring it."

"Everyone stop!" Franciso shouted urgently. "I'm to bring you all back to your accommodations. Follow me?"

"How are we meant to do that?"

"This way!" Holding up a torch, the Colonel lead the confused Alphas out of the cavern.

"Okay, you definitely won this one," Laura said. "Keep that sword on you, would you?"

"Wasn't planning on throwing away my only weapon in a time of need," Shelby assured her. "Oh jeez, the entire school's lost power. This is really bad - she could be anywhere. Otto?"

"I'm right here," Otto said. "Before you ask, I have absolutely no idea whether I can restore power to things."

"Well, try, will you?" Shelby retorted. "Not much else to do unless we run into the second most liked crazy Furan assassin."

"Seems like her title gets longer every time she attacks," Laura commented.

"Really, Brand? I love snarky banter more than anything, but not when we could potentially be doing it for the last time ever."

"Hey, we've survived every time before," Otto said.

"But this time Blade is inside the school and we cannot see her," Wing pointed out.

"Oh, there you are," Shelby said, sounding relieved. "Quick reminder to all of you, if we live through this, I'm picking our end-of-year prank."

"I'm pretty certain that was going to happen anyway," Otto grinned.

"Not now, Otto. Did you get power?"

"I don't need to. We're here," Otto said as they stooped outside their accommodation area. "And our laptops have safety restraints."

"Is that the same thing as blackout restraints all of a sudden?" Shelby said as the Alphas piled into the cavern.

"It operates on an independent power system so that it can't be hacked in the same way all the other computers here can," Otto explained. "And I took this opportunity to link up to the CCTV. You're welcome."

"So you've put independent cameras all over the school too? Is that what I've been sneaking around trying to get for you in exchange for this month's homework?"

"Yep," Otto said, switching on the computer. "By the way, it took you forever to get the parts."

"Look, just do what you need to do," Laura said desperately. "And incidentally, how will the cameras be able to pick anything up in complete darkness?"

"You underestimate my powers." Otto opened a window full of screens showing dimly lit hallways. "Night-vision cameras."

"In two weeks? What a show-off." Laura shook her head and looked at the screen. "I can't see anybody. Are you sure these cameras are enough?"

"They're strategically placed. Outside Nero's office, outside our accommodation area, by the Shroud landing pad, all the places she's most likely to be."

"How you've not just taken over the school already, I'm not entirely sure," Shelby said. "Look, is that her?"

A blurry figure passed by the camera at the top of the screen.

"That's the camera just out there," Otto whispered.

"Ugh. Laura, call Nero and Raven. Alphas, GET YOUR SWORDS OUT!"

Wing and Shelby felt their way to the entrance and held out their swords just as the door opened, revealing a tall figure holding two faintly glowing knives.

"Damn it, that really was you," Shelby muttered. "Oh, why did these swords have to be blunt?"

She lunged forwards with her sword, moving as fast as she could to avoid the knives flying through the air. Wing moved behind Blade, who twisted out of the way and threw one knife towards Wing. In his hurry to avoid it, he didn't try to catch it and Blade beat him to the task.

"Laura, Otto, we could really use a hand here!" Shelby yelled, doing her best to keep Blade away from the rest of the students.

"We're here!" Laura ran to Shelby and held her sword out. "Remind me how I'm meant to do this?"

"Don't distract me, just stay alive!" Shelby reached up with her spare hand and caught the knife being thrown at her with the tips of her fingers. "And try to keep her off me, I think she wants this back."

Shelby was right. Blade made a grab for her wrist and Shelby tried to use the knife to keep her off, but whatever gloves she seemed to protect her. Shelby tried kicking at the hand trying to recover the knife, only to be tripped up and she fell flat on her back. The knife landed beside her.

"Where's Raven when you need her?" Shelby said, picking herself up and holding her sword out quickly.

"Speak of the devil and she doth appear." Two purple-glowing swords appeared behind Blade. "I've been looking forward to this."

Just then, Blade pulled something out of her jacket and dropped it, and the room was engulfed in smoke. Raven swung her katanas through the air, trying to find her, but when the smoke cleared, Blade had disappeared and her sword was pointing at Laura.

"Are you alright?" Raven addressed the four as she strapped her katanas back in.

"We're alive," Otto said. "She got away?"

"She dropped a smoke bomb. Non-toxic for some reason. Funny, that's one of my favourite escape methods. If she hasn't left by now, that means that she'll be back any minute to finish what she started."

"I can't help but be disappointed," Shelby said. "If it had been you, we'd already be dead."

"Possibly," Raven agreed. "We need to find Doctor Nero - he's fixing the power at the moment."

"Ninja business, everyone," Shelby said. "Go back to class."

Raven lead the others to Nero's office and knocked. The door opened just as the lights flickered back on.

"Raven?" Nero looked worried. "What happened?"

"Not your average blackout, Max," Raven said. "More the kind that happens when Blade wants to attack discreetly."

"Blade? Where?"

"Gone, but not before she tried to take out these four." Raven gestured to the group behind her.

"Oh dear. This really has gone too far, hasn't it?" Nero said.

"Seems like it," Shelby said. "So what's next?"

Nero nearly smiled. "What you've been waiting for - we're taking the fight to her."

 **Hi everyone! I just noticed that in the last chapter, it's mentioned that the year started nearly four months ago - since term starts in August, this means it's almost Christmas time! If you want me to put in a Christmas chapter, let me know in the Reviews or in a PM. Bye now!**


	13. Chapter 13

"Oh, lighten up," Shelby moaned as she spun her chair around and around. "It's Christmas Eve tomorrow. Be grumpy on Boxing Day."

"I'm not being grumpy, I'm just not being a chirpy little...sugar plum fairy."

Shelby snorted. "Quick, hide..." As Laura ducked behind the bed, looking somewhat confused, Shelby turned around in her chair dramatically. "I've been expecting you."

Otto and Wing (mostly Wing) were hauling a large Christmas tree into the cell, with varying levels of festivity.

"Otto, I told you to get the decorations, you're simply not strong enough to carry a tree," Shelby said, wagging her finger. "Now Laura, quit being a Scrooge and help us!"

"I am nineteen years old," Otto said indignantly.

"Yay! You can count! Tall, dark and festive over here can carry a full sized Christmas tree before the age of twenty but forget that - Otto can count!"

"Shut up, Shel," Laura said. "Otto, help me untangle these."

"Laura's being festive?" Shelby cheered. "HIVEmind, put on a Christmas playlist." The screen behind her turned blue and then began to play.

"Come on, didn't you have any Christmas traditions before you came here?" Otto asked.

Laura grinned. "We all slept around the tree on Christmas Eve so we didn't have to wait at all in the morning to open presents."

Wing frowned. "That doesn't quite seem like something we would be able to do."

"Why not?" Shelby asked.

Wing sighed. "I suppose we're doing that, then."

"Now he gets it!" Otto said cheerfully. "Your turn, Shelby."

"Oh, the last two Christmases before I got sent here I spent Christmas Eve stealing presents -" Shelby stopped at the expressions on her friends' faces - "Okay, okay. We'd have a Christmas karaoke."

"That seems a little more doable," Laura nodded.

Shelby made a face. "The big guy doesn't sing."

Otto gasped in mock surprise. "Nothing at all?"

"Nothing at all," Wing said, smiling ruefully.

"Nevermind, I forgot to mention we have another tradition," Shelby said with a mischievous grin. "Anybody who doesn't join in gets pranked on Boxing Day. The Trinitys do pranks like nobody else."

"I don't doubt that," Otto said. "What'll it be, Wing?"

"We shall see."

'

* * *

'

Laura woke with a start and tried to sit up, but couldn't. Turning her head around, she saw that Shelby had falling asleep with her legs sprawled on top of her - although judging by her too-quick breathing and the half-smile on her face, she doubted that it was an accident. She pushed her friend off and shook her. "Hey, you! It's Christmas."

Shelby remained still, although she began to shake silently trying to hold in laughter.

"Hey, Shelby! The Wraith is a terrible thief."

Shelby went from lying down to on her feet with a pillow in her hands in less than a second. "I beg your pardon?"

Laura laughed and started to kick Otto awake. "Raven's been training you well. Merry Christmas."

Shelby grinned as Laura kept trying to wake Otto. "Tickle him."

"The what now?"

She shrugged. "Works on Wing."

Laura rolled her eyes and followed instructions. It worked.

"No, stop...oh, it's Christmas. Hi, everyone." He sat up and frowned. "I seem to remember having a pillow under my head when I fell asleep."

They both looked at the pillow in Shelby's hands. Shelby looked at the pillow and threw it at Otto. "New tradition!"

Wing woke up to a flurry of pillows in his face.

"Merry Christmas to you too," he said. "What has happened?"

"We had a sleepover around the Christmas tree and when we woke up we had a pillow fight," Laura said cheerfully, dodging a pillow. "I'd get up if I were you, Shelby might try and smother you with a duvet."

"That certainly offers an incentive," Wing agreed. He got up and lobbed a pillow at Otto.

"I feel targeted," Otto complained as the pillow hit him over the head.

"It's common nature to pick on the short ones," Laura explained, grinning. "Come on now, I can't keep doing this on an empty stomach."

Minutes later, the four of them were having one of the best breakfasts they'd had in weeks.

"You know, despite the fact that this school has grappler training caverns, megalomaniacal headmasters and deadly homicidal creatures to offer," Shelby said through mouthfuls of bacon, "the thing I'll miss the most about this place is the food."

"Not us?" Laura objected.

"I was under the impression that we would keep in touch after this year," Shelby said, offended. "If I was incorrect, then what I'd miss most...still the food."

"Don't worry, we're not going anywhere," Laura said, elbowing her. "Right, boys?"

"It's debatable," Otto said. Wing said nothing.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shelby said, raising her eyebrows. "You gonnagraduate and then move to Argentina?"

"Villainy is a worldwide-scale career," Otto said. "Argentina one day, Paris the next..."

"So you're staying in the biz?"

"Well, they say to do what you're good at, and they also say do what pays well. I'm feeling pretty confident with my decision."

"That does seem fair enough," Wing agreed.

"Your turn now," Laura said. "What's next for you?"

"I am afraid I have not yet thought that far ahead," Wing said.

"You at least got any _ideas_?" Shelby persisted.

"Not really," Wing said, smiling.

"Can we give you some?"

"That depends."

Otto grinned. "Retired GLOVE operative."

"If you're a GLOVE operative, how can you be retired?" Shelby wondered.

"If it is your only job, then I believe it counts as retirement," Wing told her. "That does not hold a lot of appeal for me."

"Colonel Franciso Junior," Laura suggested.

"That could be enjoyable," Wing admitted.

"Isn't sadism and meanness part of the job requirement?" Otto reminded them.

"We're ground breakers and revolutionaries, Otto," Laura said grandly. "Screw job requirements."

"Spoken like a true Alpha," Otto grinned.

"Oh, and look at that...she's an Alpha! It's amazing!" Shelby exclaimed. "My turn. Um...Laura kind of stole mine. How about a guard?"

"I suppose as a last resort," Wing said.

"I don't imagine it would pay well as being Franciso Junior," Otto said thoughtfully.

"You guys," Shelby moaned, "It's Christmas, why are we talking about our futures? I couldn't think of anything less festive."

"Shelby's right," Laura nodded. "We'll find job options for Wing another day."

"Now that that's done, I believe we discussed a certain Christmas karaoke."

"Just to be clear, what happens if we don't do it?" Otto said. Shelby grinned.

"That's up to me and everybody who isn't being pranked. I'll warn you, when it comes to post-Christmas pranking, I'm simply diabolical."

"Well, I'm not waiting to find out if that's true," Laura decided. "Anybody else?"

Wing and Otto looked apprehensive.

"Oh, boys, you've made the wrong decision." Shelby stood up from the table, turned and stormed off grandly.

"Does anybody think she's a rubbish stereotypical villain?" Laura grinned. Behind her, Shelby appeared with a fork in her hand.

"Why would I think that?" Wing said quickly.

"Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about," Otto agreed. Laura frowned and turned around.

"Careful, Brand," Shelby said. "Come along now, we can't let these Scrooges spoil our fun."

'

'

"I feel so evil," Laura whispered. She was standing behind Shelby as she picked the lock on Wing and Otto's door.

"Yeah, well, that's the point," Shelby replied as the door _clicked_ open. "Hand me a can."

Laura handed Shelby one can of whipped cream and a feather. Shelby crept over to Wing's bed and squirted a heap of cream into his hand. On the other side, Laura did the same.

"I am so happy we can get this on camera," Shelby said, grinning widely. "Go."

Laura waved her feather around Otto's forehead. Reacting, his hand shot up to his face - covering it in whipped cream.

"Oh, hell yes!" Shelby cheered as the two boys woke up with faces full of cream.

"I'll admit," Laura said as Shelby high-fived her. "That was awesome."

"That's one way to put it," Otto said, half cross and half trying to hold in laughter. "I'd call it a bit of a let-down."

"What, you wanted more? Right then, Brand, looks like our job's not done yet." They ran off laughing. "Happy Boxing Day!"

 **A/N: I am SO sorry it took me so long to update, my laptop charger kind of disappeared. I'm also sorry for this somewhat disappointing chapter, but it' sheen so long since Christmas I'm kind of not in the spirit. I promise that the next chapter will be up tomorrow, bye!**


	14. Chapter 14

"I'm nervous," Shelby said as she entered the Tactical Education department. "And Shelby Trinity doesn't get nervous."

"If it's any consolation, I think the only person alive who could take on this mission without being nervous is Raven," Wing said, gesturing to Raven, who stood behind them. Overhearing, Raven shrugged in agreement.

"It's not."

"Oh come on," Otto insisted. "You were the Wraith and that was before six years at the Higher Institute of Villanous Education. You'll be fine."

"I don't like being given pep talks. I'm the pep-talker, that's kind of my thing."

"Shelby, you're hardly doing this alone," Laura reminded her. "There are five of us, one of whom is the world's deadliest assassin, one of whom is a real-life computer brain -"

"Okay, okay," Shelby sighed. "Let's get ready. Ooh, grenades! This is fun!" She raced to the shelves full of equipment.

Otto beat Shelby to it, observing the racks of weapons and armor that stood in front of him. He took a small gun from a rack and held it out. "What kind is this?"

Laura looked at it. "I remember that one - you link it to a Blackbox and you can use the bullets to track. Leave that one for Raven, since we don't have Blackboxes anymore. Try this one." She took a pistol off of a shelf and handed it to Otto. "Eight hundred volt electrical stun gun."

"That's cool and all, but I'm afraid that this beauty steals the show." Shelby held out a dagger and pressed a button on the hilt. The blade immediately began to extend until it was almost stabbing Wing, who was five feet away. She pressed it again, and the blade retracted.

"Just choose whatever you use the best, and don't forget an ISIS suit," Raven said, looking amused as she watched them compare weapons. "Upgraded since you last used them - only thing they can't resist is these." She gestured to the katanas on her back.

"It's a shame these things don't have pockets, Shelby said, taking the thermoptic camouflage suit and looking at it. "Really restricts how many weapons I can carry."

"Weapons are not the only way to disable an opponent," Wing pointed out.

"Yeah well, we can't all be fifty karate kids at once," Shelby replied as she took a throwing star and a taser gun off the shelves. "Where are all the lockpicking tools?"

"You realize we aren't breaking into a bank, MI6, or any place where a hairgrip or two won't do the trick," Laura said, rolling her eyes. Shelby made a face at her and strapped the extending dagger to her back.

"I suppose Wing will be taking swords?" she said, bored.

"That is correct." Wing took a long, curved sword from a rack. "This one will do."

"I don't suppose H.I.V.E. has made lightsabers yet?" Laura asked quickly.

"Afraid these girls are the closest thing we have," Raven gestured to her katanas, "And I'm not sharing them."

"Seriously?" Shelby said under her breath. "Badass swords that can cut through anything and we only have two?"

"Your weapon becomes a good deal more impressive when it's one of a kind," Laura elbowed her. "I know you prefer power to glamour, but-"

"Actually, I like them both equally-"

"So where are Franz and Nigel?" Otto asked loudly. "You know, since they were there during the whole killing the Furans event."

"We are being here!" Franz said cheerfully, walking in. "I am of course being happy to save the day again."

"I was less happy about it," Nigel muttered.

"Okay, everyone just arm yourselves and get to the landing pad, we're on a schedule!" Raven ordered. "Oh, Miss Brand and Mr Malpense, if you could board immediately and take a laptop each - we need you to find her."

"You mean, we've been preparing to hunt down Blade since before Christmas and we don't even know where she is?" Otto muttered.

"Basically," Laura grinned. "Come on, we've got to go and track her down." She grabbed his arm and led him to the landing pad where the Shroud waited with a guard standing beside it. "We're authorized to be here, code Raven Omega Black or whatever it is you say."

"We really should make ourselves authorisations," Otto said, sitting down and opening the laptop placed on the seat.

"I'll get right to that once we're done getting rid of the Alpha-hating Furan assassin," Laura replied, rolling her eyes. "You didn't keep a copy of BLADE_, did you?"

"Why wouldn't I want a replica of the program that records, tracks and then kills me?" Otto said sarcastically. "Funnily enough, I did. Took a while to disable it, but I can still view it."

"A whole five minutes, huh?" Laura chuckled. "Right, well, find the source and then the source's source."

"Did you miss us?" Shelby said, waltzing into the Shroud with Wing behind her. She sat down and began to pin her hair up.

"Are you aware that we're about to embark on a life-threatening, possibly fatal mission while you sit there doing your hair?" Laura frowned.

"Firstly, it calms me. Secondly, you can never have too many hairgrips on you. It's just not possible."

"So in addition to the kit in your shoe, you also cover your head with lockpicks?" Laura raised her eyebrows.

"Please," Shelby grinned. "How many hairgrips do you really think a _ponytail_ needs?"

"Enough small talk," Raven sighed. "Do you have a location yet?"

"I'm ninety percent sure it's a decoy, but so far it's tracking to Sydney, Australia."

"That would be right," Shelby said, concentrating. "The further from H.I.V.E. we are, the harder it is to bring help in and the harder it is for us to get out alive. Besides, it'll be much easier to take on the rest of the Alphas once we're out of the picture."

"You know, you're actually kind of good at this stuff," Otto said.

"I do my best," Shelby replied.

"To Australia, then." Raven called out. At the control deck, the pilot nodded, adjusted her helmet and started the engine. "Engaging thermoptic camouflage."

"I'm assuming nobody wants to hear my Australian accent?" Shelby guessed. Everyone shook their heads hurriedly.

"Fine then. I spy?"

Wing looked almost as though he would roll his eyes.

"God, you guys are no fun," she said, exasperated. "We've got a long way to go before Australia -"

"Five hours and thirty-two minutes," Raven offered.

"Gee, thanks. So what will we do for the remaining five hours and thirty-two minutes of the flight?"

"How about a nap?" Otto suggested.

"So that we can just be attacked in mid-air?"

"We're invisible and we can take shifts," he insisted. "Come on, what else are we going to do?"

"Well, it's stable enough that we can have practice duels," Shelby said. "That way when we find Blade we're-"

"Tired and covered in bruises?" Laura interrupted. "You and Wing duel. I like the sound of a nap."

Shelby threw her head back. "Fine. Please, big guy, don't say that you're tired too."

"Why don't we play poker?" Wing said quickly.

"Because you'll win."

"I will also win in a duel," Wing said, nearly grinning as Shelby raised her eyebrows.

"Let's test that theory, then. Martial arts or swords?"

"Either, since we are wearing armour," Wing replied.

"Fine. Swords."

Wing turned around to pick up the sword he had left on his seat and Shelby stuck her foot out, tripping him up.

"Now, what were you saying?" she said triumphantly, grabbing the sword he'd been reaching for and pointing it at him.

"That's cheating," he insisted. "In a formal duel, you have to announce the beginning."

"Well, in a formal duel, you don't begin by saying you'll beat me. Now take it back."

"Why?" Wing said, rolling to the side and standing up. Shelby made a face and twisted around to face him again.

"I learnt a new move yesterday," she said absent-mindedly. "It's this really cool one where you - whoop, duck a blow and then you kick - no, don't get tripped up..."

"I was going to take a nap but this is actually very entertaining," Laura commented as she watched Shelby narrate the fight.

"I am not sure Otto is hearing you," Franz said. It seemed that Otto had decided the entertainment was not worth staying awake.

"And then you grab him and you -flip - him - onto - his - back - YES!" Shelby cheered. She put one foot just above his head. " _Now_ do I win?"

'

* * *

'

"We're landing in five minutes," Raven announced.

"Hear that? We're about to land." Laura shook Otto awake.

Otto blinked. "Oh, hi. Who won?"

"Depends who you ask," Laura grinned.

"What do you mean? I won fair and square," Shelby insisted. "Right, big guy?"

"Well..."

"Save it, we don't have time for this," Otto said quickly.

"Five minutes should be plenty of time to settle this," Shelby said. "Come on, I won."

"I think Wing is winning," Franz offered. Shelby glared. "I meant Shelby. Shelby is winning."

"I can't admit to paying much attention," Nigel said.

"Raven, settle this before we land," Laura groaned. "Or we'll never hear the end of it."

"Well firstly, we just landed," Raven replied. "Secondly, they're both alive, so they both win."

"Actually," a voice came from the control deck. "They're both about to die, so you all lose."

The pilot drew two knives from her belt - two double-bladed knives, glowing faintly blue."


	15. Chapter 15

"Oh jeez," Shelby groaned. "Raven, if you wouldn't mind."

Raven rolled her eyes and switched on her katanas. Around her, the others took out their weapons.

"Seven against one. I think we can handle you," Raven said quietly. "But first, where's that computer of yours? It's given us a lot of grief."

"Isn't it obvious?" Blade replied. She threw one knife towards Raven and she flinched as the stun blade cut into her shoulder. Laura raced to pick up the knife but just as she stood up its twin sank into her palm and it fell to the ground again. Laura cried out as she pulled it out - it hadn't cut deep, but once she'd recovered from the initial pain the knife had rendered her hand numb and rather useless. As Shelby ran over to comfort her, Blade pressed a button on her belt and both knives were pulled, like incredibly powerful magnets, back to the woman.

"So now they're boomerangs too," Laura muttered. "Great." With her good hand she fired her taser at Blade repeatedly, but she had Raven's talent for evasion and the one shot that hit her didn't seem to shake her at all. Wing kicked her in the stomach and for a second she doubled over, but then she took advantage of his unbalance and sent him flying. He got up to see Blade and Raven duelling while the others fired at her, but whatever armour she was wearing was clearly effective.

Somebody tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around but there was nobody there. Turning back, Wing saw that Otto had vanished from the firing squad and looking up, he saw the chair shift as Otto leapt from there and tried tackling Blade to the ground, which almost worked until she shook him off and ran for the Shroud's exit.

"Well, somebody's chickened out," Otto said, switching the ISIS suit back off.

"Of course she hasn't," Laura replied. "Her computer _is_ in Australia, and presumably whatever grand base she's set up is here too."

"Wouldn't a slightly more desolate location work better for that purpose?" Shelby frowned. "Like, the Sahara desert, or Siberia again?"

"Never underestimate one's ability to hide in plain sight," Wing said.

"He's right," Raven said. "You probably don't even want to know how many times I've been right there and none of you have noticed."

"Ja, I am most certainly not wanting to know," Franz agreed. "What is being next?"

"We follow her," Nigel said worriedly.

"You seem so unhappy about it," Raven almost smiled. "Looks like those lock-picking tools might come in handy after all. How precise was the location earlier?"

"Are we just going to ignore that Laura's just had a stun knife thrown into her hand?" Otto asked furiously.

"Otto, don't," Laura said quickly. "It's not bleeding much. We'll put a bandage on it now. I'd just look for some old abandoned place that's big enough to put a base in."

"You call it a base, but all it needs to hold is a computer," Wing pointed out. "Remember, Blade was always a follower, not a leader. I doubt she would go for the same sort of base an Alpha would."

"It still has to be somewhere she can live in," Otto said. "She spent at least part of the last two years here. We're wasting time, let's go."

"Where to?" Shelby asked.

"You heard Laura - the nearest shady abandoned place that can fit a person and a computer."

"Anybody know their way around all the shady places in Australia?"

"Raven, presumably."

"Right again." Raven switched on her ISIS suit after gesturing for the others to do the same. "Follow the floating purple sword."

Raven set one sword to glow faintly and led the others out of the Shroud.

"Hang on a sec," Shelby's voice said. "Even if we find her, there were six of us firing at her and we might as well have been houseflies. Hell, houseflies would've bothered her more."

"Every set of armour has a weak link," Raven explained. "In her case, a katana should work once I actually get a hit on her. You guys have to steal the computer to distract her."

"I'm kind of wishing I'd stayed I the dark," Shelby muttered. "Onwards."

The beam of purple brought them to a dark alleyway resembling an exploded junkyard.

"Well, you can't get shadier that this," Laura agreed. "Looks pretty empty to me."

"Appearances can be deceptive," Otto grinned. "If you decided this junkyard would be your base, where would you put it?"

"Underneath?" Nigel guessed.

"Sounds good," Raven agreed. Scrap metal went flying everywhere as the invisible Raven dug through the pile.

"Do we have to do that too?" Shelby asked quickly.

"It would help," was the response. Sighing, she began to help along with the others until -

"I am finding something!' Franz yelled.

He had moved aside all the scrap bits of metal covering a large metal trapdoor.

"How did she cover it up with that much junk in ten minutes from behind the trapdoor?" Shelby wondered. She pulled a hairgrip out and set to work on the lock.

"Wait!" Laura yelled as a thought came into her head.

"What now?" Shelby groaned.

"You're right. There's no way she could conceal that if she's on the other side of the trapdoor, but that's not to say that it's not her trapdoor."

"What, you think there's some giant robot waiting to crush us once we go down there?"

"No, but I do think that it only unlocks from one side."

Shelby connected the dots and felt under the metal bars. "You're right. One-way lock and it's dark down there. Probably a big drop. I could possibly climb up and reach around and unlock it, but by then she'd have found us. I hate tricks."

"There has to be something else," Otto said desperately.

"You're right," Wing nodded. "But if the trapdoor is already open, what difference does it make if it cannot be unlocked from the other side?"

Shelby looked bemused. "At this point, I can't even tell what she wants us to do. So do we go down or not?" She looked to Raven for further instruction.

Raven resisted the temptation of saying that she didn't know - she could think of something. "We can escape from down there pretty easily. I reckon it's important."

"The Raven has spoken."

Sighing, Raven cut through the metal with her katanas. "Okay, line up to drop down. Me first." She made sure that her order had been acknowledged, and then she cautiously dropped down the gap. She was certain that it wasn't a fatal drop - Blade would want to deal with them personally, as was so often the case before a downfall - and sure enough her feet hit the floor within seconds. "All clear!" she called.

Seconds later, Wing landed beside her with only a slight wobble and stood, staring into the blackness.

"It really is dark down here," Shelby said, landing gracefully at the bottom. "Katanas, please." Raven switched the blades on, and the purple glow just lit a large room full of weapons and gadgets.

"Huh," Otto said as he dropped into the faintly-lit room. "It's not very..."

"Grand? No." Wing looked around. "But again, it doesn't have to be."

"I made it!" Laura announced. "Okay, I don't see her."

"Well, of course you don't," Otto said. "She's Raven Two, and it's dark enough as it is. Since we have an actual Raven and a trainee Raven, they can find her."

Nigel, who had landed just as he said this, nodded quickly.

"You know she's probably just...I don't know, lying in the rafters or something," Shelby said. "There has to be a light switch somewhere."

"Why do we never pack torches?" Wing asked.

"We're arrogant and cocky and forgot all about them, that's why," Shelby grinned. "Come on, we have a Raven Two to catch."

She felt along the wall for a lightswitch hurriedly, preferring to see their target, then sighed and found a flashlight lying on a table. "This makes it slightly easier and... oh wait. Who the hell are you? "

The beam of light landed on a woman beside a computer, but the pilot armour Blade had previously worn was replaced with black metal. Worse than that, she also had a detonator which she dropped calmly on the floor. It beeped and the ISIS suits were disabled.

"There's another one?" Shelby groaned. "What, is your codename Keyboard or something?"

"Shelby, I'm pretty sure that's the same one," Laura whispered.

"Whoops.


	16. Chapter 16

"Now, Laura dear, tell me...would you rather take on Blade or the final exams?"

The group were stretched out on the beanbags in the atrium, surrounded by books.

"It comes extremely close," Laura groaned. She began to sit up then thought better of it and flopped back down. "I am so jealous of Mister computer brain today."

"Aren't we all." Shelby rolled over and flicked through a textbook, not absorbing any of it. "Stealing the answers would actually be easier, and that's saying something considering last time we did that you two were nearly killed."

"Don't get any ideas," Otto grinned. "If you want a last-minute tutor though, the offer still stands..."

"You're condescending enough as it is, Malpense. We don't need you patiently explaining why this is this and that is that and this is the blah-blah-blah of the blah..."

"That's hardly fair," Otto said. "You should really think before you say hurtful things like that."

"You're not helping," Laura punched him in the shoulder.

"Wing, say something," Shelby moaned. "I need to know that there are still humans in the world who don't speak binary."

"What do you want me to say?"

Shelby smiled. "That'll do." She sat up. "So, how will we steal these answers?"

"Shelby," the others said simultaneously.

She held up her hands. "Okay, okay. But I need a break. Can we talk about something else now?"

"Like?"

"Like, you never told us what was on that computer."

Laura grinned. "Technical details?"

"Without all of those."

She made a face. "Well, remember when she said she was more useful alive? It turns out she meant that there was a virus planted inside the school, set to release in a month or earlier if she wanted, and she thought only she could remove it."

"I take it she's wrong?"

"No kidding. We found the virus and the contraptions holding it - they were so cool, you should've seen - and killed them."

"Looks like we've all had our fair share of life-saving now," Otto said cheerfully. "I don't suppose Shelby would like another chance to brag about all her daring feats?"

"You are so condescending, and I have not been bragging that much, have I?" She looked at Laura and Wing's somewhat nervous faces. "Honestly. Now, come on, why aren't we stealing the answers? It's a school for villains, for all we know that _is_ the test."

"This is about end-of-year symbolism, isn't it?" Laura grinned. "We can find some other way to make sure everyone remembers us."

"What, more than they already will? Shelby's replacing Raven and if Nero has his way we'll all become teachers and G.L.O.V.E. operatives," came Otto's reply. "And I reckon we could pass with average marks and become hermits after this year and still be remembered."

"He has a point, you know," Wing admitted with a chuckle. "In our first year, we try to escape, save the school from a giant Venus flytrap and get attacked by robot assassins."

"And in our second year," Laura continued, grinning, "We discover that Otto here is a clone - although to be honest, we didn't find that bit out for ages - and save America. Third year, we kill Overlord."

"Exactly," Shelby insisted. "We've done so much, we need to make sure the last term doesn't disappoint."

Laura sighed - clearly Shelby wasn't giving up. "So how did you want to leave your mark on the school exactly? And please can it not involve your 'My thanks, the Wraith' cards being placed inside every cell in the building?"

"How the...how did you guess?"

"Even if I hadn't known you for six years, you're as predictable as...as..."

"A weighted dice toss?" Otto offered.

"Bless you," Shelby nodded.

"Anyway, let's go to the Tactical Education department. We have practical exams tomorrow too, you know."

Shelby perked up. "I forget, at H.I.V.E. you're allowed to enjoy some of your exams. Come on!"

'

* * *

'

"This is so much better than dumb textbooks," Shelby yelled. She sat at a control deck flying a simulated helicopter.

"We're right here, Shelby, no need to yell." The others all sat at similar control decks. "And also, you're distracted. There are shots coming after you."

Swerving below the virtual bullets being fired at her, Shelby grinned. "You're distracted too."

"That's right," Laura muttered, swearing under her breath as she plummeted towards the ground. "Thanks, Shel."

"Hey, in a real-life situation -"

"There's no way I'd be flying. Or preferably even on the flying vehicle."

"What's that meant to mean?" Otto frowned, able to keep flying amidst all the chatter. "You're staying out of the action?"

"I can hack from a distance."

"I thought we were meant to be preparing for tomorrow's exams, not chatting," Wing said, landing his plane neatly on the simulated runway.

"Emphasis: _meant_ to," Laura grinned. "We're all gonna have to study in separate rooms if we want to get anything done."

"Or," Shelby said, drawing out the vowel. "We pull the prank now and all distractions are out of the way."

"We're all distractions to each other, Shel," Laura insisted. "We wait just two days and then we won't have exams to worry about anymore."

"I won't be able to focus," Shelby whined. "Don't pretend like you don't want to."

"Of course I do, but I also want to pass these finals first."

"Maybe Shelby has a point," Otto agreed. "It can't hurt to shut her up for a bit."

"There's the spirit - wait, what?"

"Quickly now, before I change my mind," Otto smiled. "What are we doing?"

"Ummmm...oh, I know. We can hack Ms Leon's vocal transmittor to make it...erm...have an Indian accent."

"Sounds great," Laura rolled her eyes, "but remind me when you learned how to hack a vocal transmittor?"

"Fair enough. OH!" She started bouncing on the balls of her feet uncontrollably. "Otto, do you remember showing us the guns you and Laura designed?"

"You may be replacing Raven, but that does not in any way make killing an acceptable prank," Laura said quickly, frowning at Shelby.

"No, silly. We load them with paint, sneak out at night and then in the morning everyone wakes up, heads out for breakfast and dun-dururun-dun-dun! The hall is covered in paint."

"Guards." Laura had the words out of her mouth almost before Shelby had finished her explanation.

"We go after their patrol."

"We've tried sneaking out before," Otto said. "And do you remember what happened?"

"Are we referring to the time we tried to escape and got stuck in an imaginary submarine pen or the time we tried to steal the exams and ended up getting ambushed?" Laura blushed at the mention of the second event.

"Both."

Shelby wheeled around. "Anything you'd like to tell us, Laura?"

Laura shook her head, eyebrows raised.

"That's one down. And as for the other time...well, the getting out of our dorms bit wasn't where we screwed up, was it?"

'

* * *

'

"I honestly cannot believe any of us agreed to this," Laura grumbled as she stepped inside the closet beside her bunk.

"Oh, calm down," Shelby rolled her eyes. "You know, binary-brainwise, you and Otto make perfect sense, but your sense of adventure is a completely different story."

"Be nice," Laura said teasingly. "I still have thirty-nine seconds to change my mind."

"Please," Shelby snorted. "Your mind was made up from the start. I just gave you a little nudge in the right direction. Oh and by the way, try and get out sooner this time round. The memory is a little blurry around the edges, but I do remember a lot of Brand-inflicted-pain."

"Shut up."

As Shelby did so, she began to tip backwards. She grinned to herself as the wardrobe began to twist, and in a moment she was sitting up as she moved along.

"Brand. What did I tell you? Get out before I have to nearly kill myself again," she ordered, swinging out of the cart and onto the rail, her paint gun tied to her leg. "Move it. Oh hey there, you two."

They were inside the ventilation shafts much faster than the first time, having been spared the drama of their initial journey, and were chatting amongst each other as Otto led them to the dining hall.

"I still want to know how Otto knows where we're going," Shelby muttered as she hauled herself along. "It's hard to believe that anybody could bother to chart a map of the ventilation shafts. Mapping the actual building out would already take a century."

"Would you rather I hadn't?" Otto shot back.

Shelby pondered. "I could've found another way and I must say, nineteen-year-old Shelby doesn't fit in here quite as well as thirteen-year-old Shelby did. Still doing pretty well, but another method would've been preferable."

"Like what?" Wing asked as he peered through the grille below him. "We are above the Tactical Education cavern. Otto, I think you may have gotten us lost."

"Of course not," Otto grinned. "This is part of the trip. Guns out!"

Not even Wing could stop himself from grinning as they fired paint bullets at the walls of the cavern through the narrow gaps in the shaft.

"I bet I can hit the grappler rack before you can," Shelby challenged Wing. "Especially considering this is probably your first experence with a gun since Brazil."

Wing smiled at her and sent a bullet flying towards the grapplers. Seeing what he was doing, Shelby fired a round of shots in the same direction, but Wing's bullet made it there first.

"Damn it. How about at the parkour course?" She was already firing by the time Wing directed his gun.

"Enough, you two," Otto said, waving them along as he and Laura began to crawl again. "You don't want to waste all your ammo on the first firing range, now do you? We still have to do the hall and all the accommodation areas and I only made so many bullets."

"Shut up Malpense, don't spoil my fun."

In no time the accommodation areas were splattered with paint of all different colours, as were the four of them (the competition had gotten a little bit out of hand). Finally they were hunched up above the dining hall, guns pointed, when they heard a quiet patter. They watched, hardly daring to breathe, as a fluffy white cat leapt onto a table and looked around. She couldn't see them, but they knew her well enough to know that that didn't mean much. In Otto's mind, he mapped out the time it would take Ms Leon to reach were they were in the ventilation shafts. Factoring her speed and size in, they had very little time. Otto gestured for them to forget the dining hall - if they waited until Ms Leon was out of earshot she'd reach them - and they followed Otto as he led them in a complicated route that ended above their accommodation area.

"We've done our bit," he sighed as he dropped down and yawned loudly. "Everyone go, pretend to be asleep. Oh and Shelby, tomorrow there's no excuse -"

"I'll be extremely focused, don't you worry," Shelby moaned, stretching as she escaped the confinement of the ventilation system. "We just need to pray nothing else pops up."

'

* * *

'

"Morning," Otto said cheerily, shaking Wing awake. "Exams today, remember?"

"If that is true," Wing said, still reluctant to leave his bed, "why do you look so happy?"

"Nobody told us, but you get three extra hours of sleep on exam days."

"So getting extra sleep is your cause of happiness?" Wing looked suspicious, to say the least.

"I'm well rested, what can I say? Breakfast starts in half an hour, don't be long."

"Hi Otto, you're a little late," Laura greeted him as he entered the dining hall. "This place looks rather bare now after having seen the accommodation area."

"Couldn't be helped," Otto smiled ruefully, sitting down. "Why does Shelby look so happy?"

"Otto," Shelby said, grinning from ear to ear. "Do you remember where we were two years ago?"

"Siberia," Otto replied through a mouthful of toast. "Why?"

"Doing what?"

"Getting ambushed and abducted."

Shelby sighed. "Raven suddenly remembered that we all missed out on the Hunt, so that's happening right after exams week. Exciting!"

"Not the word I'd choose..." Laura muttered.

"Oh, come on," Shelby said impatiently. "We have nerd exams all day today and half of tomorrow, so by the time practical exams start you'll be so bored of computers that you'll be looking forward to it, and by the time the Hunt begins you'll be all ready."

"Doesn't work that way."

"Shut up. Here's the big guy," Shelby kissed Wing on the cheek and sat him down beside her. "You're excited to hear that we'll get to do the Hunt after all, aren't you?"

"As long as history does not repeat itself, it should prove to be interesting."

"I think that means yes."

"What's first again?" Laura asked.

Shelby made a face. "The Finance exam that nobody wanted to steal Franz's answers for."

"I have a feeling we're gonna regret that."

"Probably. Then we have the hack-in-the-Box. And then something to do with mechanics."

"Shelby and I will certainly not enjoy today, although you may enjoy part of it," Wing summarised.

"In case they hadn't figured that much out for themselves."

"Cut it out, you two," Laura said quickly. "This weekend we'll be off doing ninja things and while we're getting caught because we couldn't keep up with you, the two of you can banter away all you like, but right now we have exams in ten minutes and i'm trying not to lose it."

"Well, if you're sacrificing yourselves in the name of banter, there's no way we don't break that twenty-four hour record," Shelby said cheerfully. "We've made a whole game plan for as soon as you two fall behind. Wing karate chops the trees so they fall on their heads or at least block their path while the Raven apprentice slash Wraith -" she gestured towards herself - "lays false trails. Then we ninja-stealth our way across a couple of miles and preferably find some Siberian coffee beans lying around. Of course, if you do manage to keep up, I'm still debating over whether we'll be leaving the two of you behind anyway."

"I hope you don't plan on leaving me behind," Wing frowned.

"Never. Come on, we'll set a good example if we're there early."

"She does realize that Russia's too cold to find coffee beans anywhere?" Otto mouthed as Shelby grabbed Wing's hand and dragged him to the classroom. Laura just shrugged.

'

* * *

'

"Well, that was a nightmare," Laura sighed as she flopped down on the sofa, "and I actually _like_ hacking."

"You know, I was just starting to warm up to computing before today," Shelby agreed. "My only consolation right now is looking around and seeing a lot of splattered paint everywhere."

"That'll be gone by tomorrow."

"I know. Let me savour the moment," she replied. "Just think Shelby, think of the paint-splattered walls while you wait for the practical exams to begin."

"I do not understand Shelby sometimes," was all Wing could think to say.

"I never have," Laura groaned. "I changed my mind, Otto, I need a tutor before the big science thing tomorrow. You w-" Shelby threw a cushion at her before she could finish.

"He is not allowed to win. Ask HIVEmind to tutor you."

"The only thing more patronising than Otto teaching would be HIVEmind teaching." Laura did her best impression of HIVEmind. "No, student Brand, you are doing everything wrong. What are you thinking."

"I have never heard such a terrible impression of HIVEmind," Otto said in a perfect impersonation of the AI.

"See? He can't teach you. You'd explode and then how would you pass any exams?"

"Oh, whatever."

"Awesome. Let's talk about something interesting now, like the Hunt." Laura immediately began to get up. "Well, if you don't want left behind, then we need to know what else we'll do with you."

"Do what we always do, wing it and hope for the best."

"Except this is Raven we're talking about and she knows that we never plan anything out. Which reminds me - oh Raven! If for some reason you're eavesdropping right now, scoot. That's cheating." Shelby waved her arms at the ventilation system to enforce her point.

"You look like a huge idiot," Otto snorted. "I love it."

"Thanks, I have my moments. Now, game plan. If we find a way to get behind her - nah, she's Raven. If we chuck snow at her and run for it - nah, she's Raven. If we tunnel under the snow and stay there-"

"We don't even know we'll be in Siberia this time."

Shelby grinned. "Well, _you_ don't."

"Meaning..."

"That it isn't my fault if they weren't as well protected this year. Not actually Siberia, but some other Russian wasteland with plenty of snow."

Laura looked impressed and irritated. "What happened to not stealing answers?"

"What happened to the villainous part of villainous education?"

"You have an answer to everything," Laura grumbled.

'

* * *

'

"It's even crueler because we're not given our results till we get back. We'll be distracted," Laura complained through a faceful of snow.

"Keep your voice down," Shelby hissed in response. "We need to get into the woods and up on the canopy."

Laura snorted. "In the five minutes we have?"

"Ten if we leave you behind. Now move it."

Muttering under her breath, Laura followed as a determined Shelby led the others into the woods.

"I was kind of expecting more...branches." Otto frowned up at the tall, thin trees.

"It's April. We're lucky they even have leaves."

"So we improvise," Wing suggested. "Branches can hardly be the only way to climb a tree."

"Well, we have no knives, ropes or grapplers to hand, and I'm not a hundred percent sure they could even take our weight," Otto reminded them.

Suddenly Laura smacked herself in the forehead.

"Not so loud," Shelby whispered. "But what?"

"We get back to the Shroud."

"What, so we can...ohhhh. Good idea. I guess you'll be second one left behind instead of first."

"If this works, nobody will need to be left behind at all," Laura replied.

"I think I understand what you are planning," Wing said slowly, "but how do you propose we return to the Shroud unnoticed?"

"Worse than that," Otto cut in, "But could we really be the first students who thought of that?"

"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean they've found a way round it," Laura grinned. "We just need to get them deep in the woods and then scarper."

"Should we leave breadcrumbs?" Shelby commented.

"We all love your commentary, Shelby, but can we switch it off until we're in the air?" Shelby nodded and mimed zipping her mouth shut.

"That won't last, you know," Otto teased her as they scouted for Raven and the others' approach.

"If I say 'watch it', does that count?" Shelby whispered to Wing, who smiled and shook his head. "Watch it."

"That's them," Laura said, pointing at an approaching group of figures. "We've got to take them right around so that they don't catch up to us. Shelby, get a hairgrip ready just in case. Run!"

After Laura gestured for him to take the lead, Wing led the others in a sprint through the woods, weaving through the tightly-packed trees and trying to throw their pursuers off long enough to reach the Shroud. Shelby resisted asking if he actually knew where their target was, but they were most likely all thinking it and truthfully Wing had no idea.

"Otto, I think if we start to head back now we can make it. Could you get us to the Shroud?" Wing asked, not stopping. Otto had charted the route they took in his head and led them back to where they'd been left with ease.

"Is it invisible or just somewhere else?" Shelby said, walking forwards with her hands in front of her. "Brilliant. They left it somewhere else. Now what? Can Roboto see invisible things?"

"No, but I can remember that they came from that direction," Otto pointed, "and that they reached us about six minutes after we were dropped off, which doesn't leave long for relocating a big invisible thing. They can't be far."

"God, he's unbelievable," Shelby sighed as they set off running behind Otto.

Minutes later Otto stopped in front of a large patch of snow and pointed at the tracks under the invisible vehicle.

"Find an entrance, and fast," he said. "I'm guessing we have about three minutes."

"So no pressure," Shelby muttered, hunting the entrance down. "Ah - here we go - follow me." They apparently disappeared into the Shroud.

"Who's the best pilot here?" Laura asked as she sat down.

"I hate myself for saying this," Shelby said, "But Otto can do it."

"I knew I'd get you one day," Otto grinned as he ran to the control deck and started the engines.

"Don't push it, just get us that twenty-four hour record."

"I'm not flying for twenty-four hours."

"I'll take over in a few. Now fly."

Raven and the team of G.L.O.V.E. operatives stood where they'd left the group, frowning.

"They aren't here," one said.

"Yes, I can see that," Raven snapped. "Does anyone remember where we actually left the Shroud?"

"But they can't have found it!"

"Trust me, they can and will. if we get there before they're properly airborne, there's a chance we can catch them."

"No need," came the reply. "We can control the Shroud's visibility remotely." The agent took out a remote and hit a button, then glanced expectantly in the right direction.

"Somebody's disabled the camouflage," Otto said hurriedly.

"Then reenable it."

"Aye-aye, captain."

All Raven and the team could see was a flash of colours in a corner of the sky before they faded back into the clouds.

Behind Otto, the others cheered as they flew off.

"So, where do we go?" Wing asked.

"Anywhere we like, they're stuck down there," Otto said cheerfully.

"Don't run out of fuel," Laura advised.

"Duh."

"We could go to America," Shelby suggested. "Pop in, see how everybody's doing without their favourite Wraith keeping them on their toes."

"And how many rules does that break exactly?"

"Oh, shut up."

 **A/N: Sorry the chapter is a little late, but this is an extra long chapter (twice the usual length) so I hope everybody can forgive my tardiness :P. Next chapter will be out when I finish it. No promises.**


	17. Chapter 17

"Shelby!" Laura yelled, sounding slightly frustrated. "For God's sake, you've been there almost an hour."

"One dance, Laura," Shelby replied through the bathroom door, clearly exasperated. "In six years of AIs and assassins and saving the world, we get one dance. I'm gonna take as long as I like."

"What even takes you so long?" Laura sighed. "I got ready in ten minutes." She'd been sitting on her bed chatting through the door ever since.

"Well, you put your dress and some mascara on and brushed out your hair."

"And that's a different thing from 'getting ready'?"

"Yes. Honestly, you won't stand a chance in the real world. Although I will admit your hair looks great when it's not tied up."

"I'm flattered," Laura sighed. "I'm going to go get Otto now."

"One minute!" Shelby ran out of the bathroom in a black minidress and leather jacket.

"I feel like Black Widow," she grinned as she admired her black-clad reflection in the mirror.

Laura couldn't resist. "Aren't superhero movies a little cultured for your tastes?"

"You know, as much as I'd hate to ruin your pretty dress, Black Widow could also kick about eighty behinds at once and there's only one of you."

"Okay, okay. You look great." Laura tried not to laugh.

"Yes, I know! And you look lovely too. But can I please give you a contour?"

"If I wanted a contour, I'd have done it myself."

"No, you wouldn't have. You'd have done it wrong and gotten bronzer on your dress." Shelby squinted at Laura's dark blue gown. "Although if you'd put enough on, it might've actually looked quite nice. I don't know."

"One minute's up, I'm finding Otto," Laura said, out of witty replies. She ran out of the room.

"You run very well for somebody in heels," Shelby called, following her. "Hi, boys. Ooooooh, fancy."

Both boys may have looked like they would rather be anywhere else, but all Shelby saw as she gave Wing her arm was the suit.

"This is certainly a big change from our uniform," Wing smiled.

"Good change or bad change?" Shelby grinned.

"Definitely a good one."

Wing's immunity to nerves made Otto even more unsure of what to say, not to mention jealous of his friend's smooth manner and irritated that out of all the talents his cloning had given him, the ability to talk to girls couldn't have been one.

"You look...nice," he finally told Laura, hoping that he wasn't blushing.

"You're not too bad yourself," Laura replied with a smile. "Shall we?"

"Yay!" Shelby squealed as they filed out of the atrium. "Hey, do we know who Franz and Nigel are going with?"

"Are we sure they're going with anyone?"

"Aw, that's a shame. You know, I could probably have found them both dates..."

"Wing," Laura said quickly.

"Don't worry, I'll keep her away from them tonight," he smiled.

"They've helped save H.I.V.E. what, ten times? And Nigel can make dragons out of plants and his dad's famous! I'd have found somebody really fast," Shelby rattled on. "No?" She pouted. "Fine. Let's go."

The dining hall had been transformed from its usual self into a vast dance floor illuminated from all angles by disco lights, and giant speakers made the hall tremble slightly with amplified music.

"I have no idea what any of this is," Laura observed. "We haven't listened to music in six years, can you believe it?"

"There is a lot we haven't done since we got sent here," Shelby agreed, "but we can reminisce on Friday when we graduate. Right now it's dance time. Or have you forgotten how to do that too?"

"Never knew how to begin with," Otto grinned. He did know how now, as he'd been practicing in his cell every time Wing was out for the last three weeks, but nobody had to know about that.

"Laura can teach you. I've been teaching Wing since we stole our outfits - he'll steal the dance floor, isn't that right?"

"It's possible," Wing smiled.

"Not good enough!" Shelby was yelling over the music. "Let's dance!"

The sixth-years were in uproar, as was standard with dances, crowding around HIVEmind, whose floating blue face had materialised headphones over itself as he projected the booming music to the speakers in every corner. Shelby dragged the others into the middle of the crowd despite their protests ("One dance!" she kept reminding them) and began to dance.

"I thought this would be waltzes and polkas and whatnot," Laura yelled into Shelby's ear.

"It's coming, don't fret," Shelby hollered back. "Let loose a little, Brand!"

Thankfully, Laura hadn't heard the request to let loose (as if she had, it was not unlikely that she would remain frozen for the rest of the night), and began to move. Dancing was hardly her forte, but she was doing better than Otto as he shuffled from side to side awkwardly. Shelby 'something'ed along to all the songs and everybody danced for about forty-five minutes before the blaring music changed into a cheery polka.

"This I do know how to do," Otto said, and was instantly grateful that it was too loud for the others to hear him. He took Laura's hand and assumed the starting position as they began spinning across the dance floor. Laura stood on his toes several times, but it was easy enough to get the hang of and Otto didn't seem to mind. Shelby and Wing, on the other hand, were flying across the hall, both grinning from ear to ear, doing exactly as well as you'd expect such an agile and graceful pair to do.

"They're putting us to shame," Laura muttered as they linked arms and spun on the spot.

"Afraid that there isn't much we can do about it," Otto grinned. "Oh well, who cares, it's not like it's a competition -"

"All couples, please be made aware that the dance-off has commenced. After every song, the best couples as judged by yours truly will stay on until only one remains. They will be awarded with a mystery prize." HIVEmind looked rather cheerful at the prospect of judging the students' dancing ability.

"You were saying?"

Otto smiled, twirling Laura around. "HIVEmind likes me. We're fine."

"Maybe for the first round," Shelby sang as she and Wing spun past the pair.

"We'll live!" Laura yelled over her shoulder. "You know, you're not terrible at this."

"Gee, thanks for the amazing compliment," Otto replied sarcastically. "Now are we gonna try and win or what?"

"Ahh, we're fine," Laura smiled as she nodded towards Franz and Nigel, who had paired up and were thumping across the hall, apparently enjoying themselves but still knocking all couples within a five-foot radius out of the way.

The last few rounds were highly entertaining to watch, as by then Laura had picked up how to do it, and it seemed that with every round, both they and Wing and Shelby were dancing more and more vigorously in an attempt to beat the other pair. Eventually the two couples were the only ones left, and the music was getting faster and faster. HIVEmind certainly appeared to be enjoying himself as he watched the pairs spin past each other with determined faces.

"The last round will be judged by Doctor Nero," HIVEmind suddenly announced, "Apparently my decisions have been... _biased_." Shelby let out a snort of laughter and winked at Otto and Laura as they looked at each other with despair.

"Nero likes us too," Otto reminded her.

"Right. You know, the integrity of this competition is overwhelming." She tugged at his arm. "Come on, let's win."

Raven suddenly appeared beside where Doctor Nero stood and muttered something to him.

"A tie?" He looked bemused. "It appears quite obvious who should win."

"Trust me on this one." Raven knew that Shelby would be unbearable if they won, but her training was still unknown to Nero and despite the fact that he would probably understand, she still preferred not to break it to him before the graduation.

"Miss Brand and Mr Malpense can handle failure," Nero insisted.

"I was more concerned that Sh- Miss Trinity couldn't handle victory." Eventually Raven and Shelby had come to be on first-name terms, but that would give it away.

"I'm sure they'll manage. Miss Trinity and Mr Fanchu," Nero spoke into the microphone, "You are tonight's winners. All couples can now return to the dance floor."

"What's the prize?" Shelby muttered as the couples that had been waiting at the sides returned to the center of the hall.

"There most likely isn't one," Wing suggested, "but I'd have thought that for you, beating Otto and Laura would be reward enough."

"There is that, I guess." The music slowed and Shelby grinned as they readjusted to slow-dance position. "I like this song."

"Me too," Wing smiled.

Beside them, Otto and Laura were both blushing a furious red as they moved closer together. Neither was as comfortable with slow-dancing as Shelby and Wing were, despite the two-year relationship, and neither was willing to admit they were enjoying it.

"This isn't so bad," Otto finally said with a sheepish grin.

"I suppose not, although I don't see how this is classed as _dancing_." She had a point, since they were more or less standing in the same position, swaying from one side to the other.

"Well, perhaps not." By now Otto was running out of things to say.

Laura rested her head on his shoulder. "You're bored, aren't you?"

"What? No, of course not."

"It's a shame, you're usually such a good liar. After-party?"

"Can we just go get something to eat? I'm starving."

Laura laughed as they ran off.

'

* * *

'

"This will feel so weird," Laura said as they sat in the assembly hall awaiting the headmaster. "Like when you've finished reading a really good book."

"Or a less nerdy comparison of some sort," Shelby nodded, rolling her eyes. "You know, like leaving prison or waking up from the world's weirdest dream."

"I think the dream sums it up best," Otto laughed. "Morning Otto, how did you sleep? Oh not too bad, I just had a dream where I was abducted, sent to a school inside a volcano to become a supervillain, almost killed at least ten times...dreams sure are strange sometimes, huh?"

"I mean, it's debatable whether or not I'm really leaving," Shelby pointed out.

"Raven is very frequently away on missions," Wing disagreed. "You would be travelling a lot."

The students were suddenly shushed as Nero cleared his throat.

"Students of H.I.V.E.," he began, "it is with great pleasure that I congratulate you today on having completed your training as a future generation of villains."

"Do we clap?" Laura muttered. Otto shrugged.

"I now welcome to the stage our valedictorian, Mr Franz Argentblum." Shelby bit her lip trying to hold in a fit of laughter.

"I am thanking you, Doctor Nero!" Franz beamed as he was ushered to the podium. Like everyone else, he had been issued with a graduation robe and cap along with his usual Alpha uniform that morning.

"Hello students," he spoke into the microphone, starting as the sound projected across the hall. He glanced somewhat nervously at his notes. "Six years ago, we were all being very confused but now we are being Alpha seniors!"

"Who gave him valedictorian?" Shelby muttered as he started talking about overcoming difficulty.

"Pike is my guess," Laura whispered with a slight smile. "Probably thought it would be funny."

"He was right."

"...This place was not being what any of use were expecting, but once we were accustomed it was not being so terrible. Besides, the school's menu is brilliant. Here we have learnt how to do all these dangerous things, and some of them are actually being fun. You must be learning to find the fun things or you will not be happy. You must also be learning who your friends are. In normal schools, friends are the ones who you are talking to about everything and hanging out with and sharing lunch. Many people will be saying they would take a bullet for their friends, but this school is being the place where you find out if they really would, because here a friend is being somebody who does not care about the danger you are in, they will be coming to your rescue."

"I think I might cry," Shelby whispered, clearly not about to do so but impressed and even moved all the same.

"Shut up, Shel," Laura hissed.

"And I have found those friends, and I think at this school everybody is lucky enough to also be finding those friends. That is why, even if you choose not to be becoming a villain, you must never forget your friends and never forget the school that is finding you these friends. Do unto others." Franz looked at the microphone in his hand nervously, and then grinned and dropped it on the stage floor.

"Mic drop!" Otto muttered as Franz joined the line of students collecting their diplomas, just ahead of Laura in the alphabet.

"You were great, Franz," Laura congratulated him.

"I am most glad to hear that, I was being very worried."

"No need to be," she insisted. "You finished the speech in time for lunch," she muttered under her breath, certain that had been what he was about to say next.

As the final student collected his diploma, Shelby gestured at everyone then whipped off her cap. She gave them a moment to figure it out and follow suit before tossing it in the air along with an ocean of black caps adorned with the H.I.V.E. symbol.

"You will now all be escorted to London central," Nero said loudly amidst the screaming and hugging and even crying. "Where you may leave of your own accord. Anybody who isn't yet finished with H.I.V.E. may attend the G.L.O.V.E. recruitment meeting a month from now in a location that you will be informed of once you are left in London."

"I can't believe this but...I actually think I might cry," Shelby grinned, blinking rapidly. "So, what are we doing tonight? Party in London?"

"We had a party two nights ago, Shelby," Wing said gently as Laura rolled her eyes and Otto shook his head rapidly.

"Gold raid in London? We're officially villain grads now, so might as well."

"Why don't we all just find a nice hotel and have a peaceful night," Laura suggested. "We haven't had many of those since we were sent here, have we?"

"Great idea," Shelby said. "Except for the peaceful bit. Come on, we're free, we can do whatever we want!"

"And what I want is a peaceful night," Laura said, exasperated. "Anyway, don't you think you'd better find out how Raven Replacement is going to work?"

"I spoke to her already," Shelby replied. "I'll be back here next month. That's why I'm trying to have fun. Except you nerds will need to cooperate."

"Fine," Otto grumbled. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, I want to go clubbing, I've heard it's great fun and you only need to be eighteen in the UK, but I'd be going alone. It's too much for even the big guy." Wing smiled ruefully.

"So that's out," Laura said in relief. "Other alternatives?"

"We could buy a private jet and take a tour of the world," she suggested.

Laura raised her eyebrows. "That...doesn't sound so bad, actually. Let's go!"

 **A/N: Sorry for the delay, as usual. I can tell you all about it in my story The Girl Who Went On Holiday Without A Laptop Charger and in its sequel, The Girl Who Made A Bet That She Could Read A Game Of Thrones In Two Days (I won, by the way.) The next chapter is the epilogue, and I have two possible endings - one is more predictable, whereas the other has a plot twist but it may break your heart a tiny bit. I don't want to be held responsible (: so it's up to you!**


	18. Chapter 18

"Shelby," Otto called as he stood up.

"What's the point of a codename if nobody ever uses it?" A grumbling voice came as a black-clad figure emerged.

"It doesn't work as well as you might think," Otto replied with a grin. "Anyway, as much fun as this is, I didn't call you hear to discuss codenames. There's a-"

"G.L.O.V.E. meeting tomorrow, then I have to go fetch this year's student intake, I know. You seem to forget I know everything."

"I really do," Otto grinned. "Come on, then."

Shelby followed him to the landing pad and they boarded the Shroud. She ran to the control deck and launched the vehicle.

"Right, lean back and fasten your seatbelt. We'll be there in two hours. Thank you for choosing H.I.V.E. Airways."

"So, if you're so all-knowing, what's the meeting about?" Otto asked. It hadn't been mentioned in the data he'd received just minutes ago.

"Oh, Laura - sorry, Agent Brand wants to pitch some kind of thing or other. She kind of wanted it to be a surprise. By the way, will Mark -"

"Of course. Science and Technology stream. Nat?"

"Alpha."

"How are things with you and Wing, by the way?" Otto asked.

"You know, Otto, I would think by now we're past the point in our friendship where you have to fill every silence with that question. You _employ_ him, for God's sake." Shelby rolled her eyes as she navigated the ship.

"I can't help it if I'm socially awkward. By the way, he was wondering if you could pop into lessons at some point -"

"Me? Teach?" Shelby snorted. "Maybe Raven will do it. Last I heard she's not handling retirement well."

Otto made a face at her. "And how exactly will I find Raven, master of disappearance, without any clues?"

"No, _I'm_ the master of disappearance, Raven is master of beating people up. Anyway, I have her on speed-dial."

"Really?"

"No, there's no such thing anymore," Shelby grinned. "But yes essentially."

"How do assassin classes work over video chat?"

"Silly. It may have taken the best part of ten years, but I eventually got a Raven Storytime session before she disappeared." Raven's retirement and following disappearance had caused plenty of uproar among G.L.O.V.E. until Shelby had stepped in to replace her, and even then her absence was noted over and over (much to Shelby's disapproval).

"Okay, I thought of a new way to fill silence. I want to hear."

Shelby smirked. "Say please."

"S'il vous plaît."

"In English..."

"Ah well, I'll take a nap. Wake me up when we get there."

"I suppose there's that too."

'

* * *

'

"I still can't believe Franz is head of G.L.O.V.E.," Shelby muttered as they approached the building - a theatre in London.

"You know, Shelby, I would think by now we're past the point in Franz's leadership where you have to begin every meeting with that question," Otto grinned, punching her in the shoulder.

"And I would think you'd have changed the tiniest bit over twenty years. Fifteen of which you've spent turning teenagers into supervillains."

Otto had run out of smart replies. He turned to the reception. "We're here to see _The Phantom of the Opera."_ The man at the desk nodded and pointed them along to a different corridor.

"Thank you. Which way-" Otto turned, but the man was gone.

"You shouldn't rely on me so much, you know," Shelby grinned as she led him through several passages until they were in a hidden section of the theatre, facing a blank wall. She ran one hand across the wall until a large lock with a sensor pad on top of it protruded from the wall. "Fingerprint ID? Boring." She pulled at the pins disguised as silver embellishments on the sleeves of her jumpsuit, and began poking at the metal. "Tell Franz to beef up the security measures."

"You tell him, you're an operative yourself."

"He never listens to me. When you think about it he's a born leader. Anyway, from me it'll sound arrogant."

"And from me it'll sound like you told me to say it to avoid sounding arrogant," Otto said with a chuckle as they finally entered a room full of strangely cheerful-looking G.L.O.V.E. operatives. Franz at the head of the table.

"School reunions, gotta love 'em," Shelby muttered as she sat down. "Hi, all. Got him here in one piece. Where's Laura-Agent Brand?"

"I am not being sure," Franz replied. "She assured me she would be arriving on time."

"And hello everybody!" Laura said dramatically. She was met with looks of confusion. "Hello? I'm here."

"How, exactly?" Shelby prompted.

"That!" Laura pointed at the wall. "Oops, silly me." She pulled a remote out of her pocket and pushed a button. Immediately part of the wall darkened until a small black cubicle was visible.

"You were teleporting?" Franz guessed.

"Yep!" she beamed back. "At the moment you need to have placed a booth there beforehand, but once you have you can go teleport at the touch of a button. Otto, would you care to demonstrate?"

Otto looked ever so slightly apprehensive as he got out of his seat. "I suppose it couldn't hurt."

Laura grinned.

"Could it?"

She looked mischievous. "No, of course not. Now, first you need to enter the cubicle - remotes like these -" she pointed to the one in her hand - "can engage or disengage the camouflage setting, but if there are others there who you don't want seeing you, I'm almost done with designs for glasses to detect them in their camouflaged setting." She gestured impatiently at Otto. "Well, go on!"

Hastily, Otto stepped inside the small black cubicle.

"Now, Otto, tell us what you see."

"Erm...there are footprints on the floor telling me where to put my feet -"

"Yes, you put your feet on those."

"Really?"

Shelby ground her teeth to hold in laughter and Laura frowned at her. "Keep going, Otto."

"Okay, well, there's a screen in front of me that says 'Select Destination'."

"Select 9O4LE85M."

"Sounds like a WiFi password," Otto muttered. "Okay, now what - aahh!"

"The teleportation process takes about ten seconds," Laura went on. "Longer if the specific journey is being done for the first time. That should be it now."

From the other end of the room, Otto's voice could suddenly be heard. "That was really weird."

"Ah, there he is," Laura said cheerfully. "Now, if you could use the fingerprint identification to exit the booth."

A moment later, Otto had appeared looking faintly dizzy. "Ladies and gents, teleportation booths!"

Shelby broke into applause, making faces at the others until they joined in.

"That is being most impressive, Agent Brand," Franz said. "I have a few questions, but first may I be trying for myself?"

"Of course," Laura said cheerfully, gesturing towards the visible booth. "A word of warning, it can be quite a dizzying experience if you aren't used to it."

"Certainly," Franz said with an air that implied he thought Laura was exaggerating. "Nine-oh-four-"

"Five," Shelby began to count, "Four, three..."

"Eight-five-M -aaaaaaaahhhhh!"

A few moments later Franz was at the other end of the room, all in one piece although slightly green.

"I did warn you," Laura grinned. "So, questions?"

"Ja," Franz said weakly as he sat down. "What will be happening if you want to teleport somewhere but there is being no booth?"

Laura looked uncomfortable. "You'll have to take a Shroud."

"So, it would only work if you had already visited your intended location?"

"Well, obviously we'll have booths set up at all G.L.O.V.E. safe houses, and the Wraith can set them up at impromptu locations at a moments notice, I would assume." She looked at Shelby expectantly.

"Yes, of course, I could get them wherever you need unnoticed," Shelby said smugly.

"Brilliant," Laura said, rolling her eyes the slightest bit. "Anything else?"

"Yes," Otto stuck his hand up, "can't we choose destination names like, oh, you know, 'London Theatre Two' instead of nine-oh-whatever it was?"

"I'd have thought you of all people would be able to remember which was which, but if you insist."

"That is all being good," the now fully recovered Franz said. "GLOVEmind!"

A purple laser beam shot out from the centre of the desk and a face materialised above it.

"Hello, Franz," the voice was cheerful.

"Hello there," he replied. "Can you issue for teleportation booths as designed by Agent Brand to be set up at all G.L.O.V.E. venues and at next month's meeting location?"

"Issuing order...issued. HIVEmind has asked me to remind Agent Trinity, also known as the Wraith, that today students must be retrieved."

Shelby looked irritated. "Thanks. And could you pass onto your boyfriend that I have a few more years before I lose my memory?"

The floating purple face looked slightly embarrassed as she began to shut down. "Agent Trinity, we are just friends..." Shelby snorted as GLOVEmind faded away.

"All right," Franz said with a smile, "that will be all for today. A reminder that next month's meeting will also be my birthday party so to please bring refreshments. Bye now!"

"Hi there." Laura was beside Shelby in an instant.

"Stay away from me," Shelby replied with her hands in the air. "I do _not_ want a repeat of last time I graced you with the pleasure of my company."

"You mean when I showed you the delights of Star Wars?"

"No, when you tied me to your couch and made me watch every film and episode of Star Wars existing," Shelby replied, her face scrunched up with the painful memory. "That must've been a straight week of galaxies far, far away. _Nobody_ should have to sit through the prequels."

"You'll thank me someday, Shel," Laura grinned. "Hi, Otto. Recovered yet?"

"Very funny. Will you be showing your face at the school anytime soon?"

"Maybe once the new term starts," Laura replied. "Speaking of which -"

"I know, I've gotta run. I really hope they forgive me."

'

* * *

'

"I'm back," Shelby announced as she entered the house. "God, this place is a mess. Hi, Nat."

"Where have you been?" Natalya demanded as she poked her head through her bedroom door.

"Work, same as always. Come here, will you?" Shelby got ready to draw her Sleeper.

"I know about your job."

"Excuse me?"

"And I know you have a gun." Natalya was standing by the doorframe with her arms folded.

Shelby looked impressed. "Well, at least now I know they didn't switch you out at the hospital. By the way, it's technically a stun pistol. Can I at least have a hug?"

"If you promise not to shoot me and then to tell me what's going on," Natalya replied, still looking cautious.

"Afraid I can't do that. Sorry, hon." Shelby raised the Sleeper.

In a flash Natalya was in front of Shelby, gripping the front of the pistol. "What's going on?"

"Do you know who we named you after?" Shelby said, amused.

Natalya raised her eyebrows. "Some teacher or other."

"Maybe one day I'll introduce you. The two of you have a lot in common." Shelby twisted the Sleeper and Natalya twisted with it, falling flat on her back. "I'll explain tomorrow." ZAP!

"One down," Shelby muttered as she climbed the staircase. "Mark?"

A teenage boy ran out of his room and took a look at the Sleeper. "I heard a noise. What's that?"

"Blaster," Shelby said cheerfully.

His eyes widened. "Really?"

"Hell no," she replied with a grin. "You know I hate Star Wars. It's a Sleeper. It works like this." She fired.

Just then the Blackbox at her belt buzzed and she whipped it out. It was Otto.

"Mission accomplished," she said before he could speak. "He's fine, but you should tell Laura that she needs to enforce tidiness."

"I'm right here," an indignant voice came from the side of the camera. "Operations. And how come you have such an issue with tidiness? I have not forgotten our school days."

"Yeah well, I've matured. When Natalya stays with you guys, you have to set an example."

"Stays? She basically lives with us. You might even find you have a computer geek for a daughter."

Shelby made a horrified face. "Nat would never betray me like that. I'll see you in a bit." She hung up and loaded the bodies onto the Shroud.

'

* * *

'

Natalya's eyes flickered open. "My head hurts..." she realised Shelby was standing beside her and stood up, all headaches forgotten. "What is happening? Where's Dad?"

"I'm not really meant to tell you..." Shelby began before seeing Natalya's look of outrage, "...but I guess we can make an exception once Mark wakes up."

"I'm awake," Mark muttered sleepily. "I heard something about an explanation."

"All right then," Shelby sighed. "You're both going to a school for supervillains, and Otto is headmaster. Wing is one of the teachers. The school is part of a league of _really_ super supervillains, and that's me and Laura. I'm an assassin and she's a tech manufacturer and hacker."

Mark blinked. "Say what now?"

"You weren't allowed to know because...well, I'm not exactly sure. Part of the rules. Anyway, I'm in charge of retrieving students at the beginning of the year, and that's you guys. Firstly because you're the kids of people who work here, and secondly because you have talents that could make you into villains. Mark because you'll probably cure cancer someday and Nat because you have this ridiculously smart detective mind that I can't comprehend. Goodness knows you didn't inherit it from me."

"As far as explanations go," Natalya said slowly, "that isn't terrible. Wait, so the Natalya that was your teacher - she worked here?"

"That's my girl," Shelby beamed proudly. "She was my predecessor. You might get to meet her if we can persuade her to turn up and say hello. Oh look, kids - your new home."

"We're living inside a volcano?" Mark said, awestruck.

Shelby grinned as she landed the Shroud. "We villains have a tendency to be drama queens. Come along."

Several minutes later, they were all standing in a large hall, Otto on the stage above them.

"Everyone here has a talent," Otto began grandly, "something that could make you a villain like no other. You were selected to come here because of this talent, to hone it and use it to become part of a new generation of supervillain. This is your new home, and the one place where villainy is not supressed, but encouraged to thrive in the best way it possibly can."

He spread his arms.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to H.I.V.E."

 **A/N: And that's it! I could probably have added more detail but I thought that this would be the most satisfying ending. I was originally considering splitting Wing and Shelby up but my little Wingelby-shipping heart couldn't take it. I also apologise for Wing's absence but again, satisfying nerd moments are very important to me and I couldn't see a way to fit him in before they arrived at the school.  
Just to recap:**

 **-Shelby replaced Raven after she retired and disappeared**

 **-Wing replaced Colonel Francisco after some unspecific event leaving him unable to teach**

 **-Otto became headmaster after Nero died (because an injury wouldn't be enough to keep Nero from teaching)**

 **-Laura is a retired G.L.O.V.E. agent (that is to say, she doesn't have any other job beside) and made HIVEmind a girlfriend, GLOVEmind**

 **\- Franz became the leader of G.L.O.V.E.**

 **\- Shelby and Wing had a daughter called Natalya, who stays with Laura and Otto when they are busy with work**

 **-Laura and Otto had a son called Mark ( ;) )**

 **Thanks so much to everybody for the amazingly positive feedback on this story and my sincerest apologies for slow posting. There will be many H.I.V.E. fanfics coming soon, as well as for other stories.**

 **Do unto others.**


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